What is free will? The RIGHT to choose? No one can do that for you, no one is responsible for your choice. Everyone knows whats best for everybody else. Lets take a minute to think about it. Who has to live with that choice? Who is the one responsible for the consequences?There are times when another person's decision effects us or saddens us either because that decision hurts us or we see the hurt that is coming for them. The temptation is to pressure this person to do our will -we know whats best... right?- to prevent the hurt or inconvenience to them or us. To save everyone from the consequences.
There is great risk in honoring a person's free will, as some decisions have permanent and long term consequences like co-signing a loan, trying an addictive substance, getting a divorce or moving. God has taken that risk by giving each of us a free will. We can choose to seek him or we can choose not to. God has allowed this, and this CHOICE has great consequences(John 3:16).
If God has allowed this amount of risk with the apple of his eye (that's YOU!!). What would happen if we honored the way God has made us by communicating our concerns to the ones we love as God has done with the Gospel and then taking the risk to care for and love them as they make their own choices right, or wrong.
You might begin to find freedom in your relationships as God begins to works in their lives and they(not you!) begin to bear the weight of their decisions. That person begins to see the consequences of that decision good or bad and they learn how to choose better or what to do differently next time. We see this in nature with the butterfly struggling out of the cocoon without the struggle they do not gain the muscles required to fly and so are unable to gather food or avoid becoming prey to other bugs or animals. Likewise the seed falls to the ground and without the struggle of death just stays a seed(John 12:24). Without the struggles of life and sometimes death what do we learn from. Knowledge is all well and good but ultimately each and everyone of us at some point is thick headed and has to learn from the experience of consequences.
A change of heart is personal no one but God, the devil if he is allowed or the individual(usually only with God's help)can make that change in their life.
How can I show loving support to someone when they are making a choice that has long-term repercussions?
Start by getting on your knees and being a prayer warrior and if you have shared your concerns with them or don't feel that it is your place to share them, continue to be a prayer warrior and leave it in His ALMIGHTY hands.
