The gist

This isn't a biggie: more a note to self. And other people like me. Before you, Fiona, go getting your back up about something biblically unsound that someone has said, stop and think about what they meant. Very often you'll be okay with what they meant, even if you wish they'd used different words to say it.

So when someone prays that you will be "in the centre of God's will" (as a number of people have been praying for me recently), it's charitable to assume that they don't believe in a impotent God who is stymied by our choices. What they probably mean is that in this life we can act rightly and wisely, or wrongly and foolishly, and that to chose the former is to keep in step with the most wholesome and happy vision God has for our lives. And if we stray from this, it's not that God somehow loses control over things, just that our lives are more difficult and damaged than they might have been.