What is the difference between God’s will and life circumstances we must overcome?

[Nonzi]

I recently heard a morbidly obese person say. “I am not going to try to lose weight and get healthy. Me being like this is apart of God’s plan for me. If I die, it was God’s will and my time to go.”

When does “God’s will/plan” apply? How can I better understand the difference between life’s stumbling blocks that we must overcome and God’s plan that is already set for us?

 

[Kei]

When speaking about God’s Will there is a distinction often made that we should keep in mind, and that is between His passive Will and His positive Will.
By “passive Will” we mean those things that God allows but not really wants. So, for instance, when you sin, it is of course within God’s providence, but He does not want you to sin, but allows it for some reason(s) (perhaps to help you grow in humility, bring about some good, respecting our good will, etc).

So, for instance, being gluttonous is not something He would desire. He doesn’t want us to sin or fall into vice.

How to discern God’s Will? Well, that would seem to be part of the process of growing in faith. God for sure wouldn’t want sin, etc. The Church can guide us in God’s Will, spiritual reading (especially the Bible!), etc can certainly help. A spiritual director, or so I have read, can be very helpful.
All things done in service to God and in trust in Him and His Church to help guide us so we don’t go off the rails.

Times of trial can be tremendous moments of spiritual growth!