Free will?

Today on the bus I was contemplating the issue of free will. The reason why? Actually, about a year and a half ago I thought I would start a dialogue with my co-workers about this issue of free will. This is really a hot button topic with people. It is amazing what people say. And today it came up again without my doing. One of my coworkers states we have no free will. I disagree. But, it is not a completely black and white issue. (nothing really is it seems these days!) His charge is that free will does not exist because someone could kill you, therefore taking away your free will, therefore you now have lost your free will. Your dead, no free will!Ha ha.True I guess. However:

I believe we have a will. I believe God (Jesus) gives us a will. We are given the opportunity to make choices in this life. (libertarian free will)" Libertarian free will is the ability either to do something or not. Free agency is the ability to do whatever a person wants to do (apart from constraining causes). This difference is not a small one. For example, do non-Christians have the inherent ability either to choose to trust Christ or not? Is such a decision ultimately dependent on their will? "

 Is our will totally and completely free? The answer is no. Of course not. We are not in total control, therefore we do not have total free will. My will can be taken from me, by someone else's will. .I have free will in that it is close to the hip for lack of a better phrase. I can choose what to eat, what to type, what to say, etc. I have lots of little choices, and lots of big choices. But total free will is not possible with humans. Its limited in a sense, but the limits are good limits.  I have the capacity to do a lot of good, but I also have the capacity to do a lot of bad. God has set it up so that humans can make choices that affect them and others around them,but not such total free will as that which He (God) can't control. God is amazing in His ability to set up such a scenario. God gives us the ability to choose Him or not choose Him. This is the ultimate choice in life. This is the question that is the most important for everyone to answer.

"Will means the function of choosing.  God is absolutely sovereign. He "works all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11). He does whatever he wants, and no one can stop him (Psalm 115:3; Daniel 4:34-35).
Humans are morally responsible, which requires that they be free. There is no biblical reason that God cannot cause real human choices. The Bible grounds human accountability in God's authority as our creator and judge, not in libertarian free will. "

We have to remember that we are not like God. We are created in His image, but we are not Him. He can do whatever he wants! Except sin of course. This is impossible for him, since He is love, the definition of love. He cannot be unfaithful to what He is.

There are causes which limit our free will, constraints, but we do have the ability to make a choice for or against God. We do have the ability to choose to love someone or not.

Anyways, this issue is a hot button issue, and has much more to it then what I wrote. I have to say that after about 5 minutes of processing this issue again today on the bus I fell asleep and woke up 30 minutes later to my destination. I freely fell asleep and freely woke up, freely leaving the bus, freely driving my car to freely get gas, so I could freely go home and freely eat supper with my freely chosen children and freely chosen wife who I freely asked to marry me. However, I believe she did not freely say yes to my marriage proposal. That is where God stepped in and coerced her to marry me. Why? Because He knows more than I do. Without her I would be a lost puppy. Amen. Thank God for a free-not so free-will!!!