Free Will: (dictionary.com)
- The ability or discretion to choose; free choice: chose to remain behind of my own free will.
- The power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will.
It is widely understood by Christians that God is an "all knowing", "all seeing God". An omnipotent and omnipresent God. I think it is quite easy to reconcile the idea of free will with an "all seeing" God. God can see everything, but that doesn't mean He will "do" anything with respect to how you go about your life. However, there is a great deal more of an issue with trying to reconcile an "all knowing" God with the idea of free will. Especially, if you consider that God "has a plan" for your life. God knows what decisions you make before you make them. Wouldn't that in and of itself mean that you were already destined to make that decision?
Perhaps there is a plan for your life, only it is like a roadmap, or architectural blueprint; rather than a computer program. You are free to follow the map to a destination that has been marked for you, or you can pick your own destination. You can build the house according to the blueprint or you can make modifications to the design. In both of these instances, you are given the freedom to decide how or what to do. If your life was programmed (as a computer program), then you would only be able to execute the commands or instructions as you encountered events that initated those commands. When something were to go "wrong", you would get "debugged" and a new set of instructions. As an aside, perhaps when you encountered a logical error, you "throw" the exception by prayer?
In any event, the problem still arises from the fact that God knows the choices you make before you make them. He possesses knowledge of the future, which means that the future is knowable (at least by God), and that it is already written. God, either knows or does not know the decisions you make. Does it really only boil down to two scenarios? If He knows the decisions we make before we make them, then the future is written for us. If He does not know the decisions we make before we make them, then the future is not written for us. Can there be a third option? God knows the decisions we make before we make them, but the future isn't "written in stone"? I'm not sure how this third option could exist.