Good points.
I suppose one could get into the old philisophical bugaboo about God’s “permissive” vs “absolute’ will . . .
But then, I guess Calvinists only believe that God has His UNALTERABLE STATIC ABSOLUTE WILL.
And, I don’t really enjoy such pontifications and hair splittings about things which I believe we have too little information on to be dogmatic about.
Yes, pretty much. :) However, we humans do not experience it that way. For example, you might pray for a thing to happen which you would normally think very unlikely to happen. Then, suddenly that thing happens. Did God respond to your prayer? "Sure", I would say. God knew the prayer was coming and whether it was in accordance with His will (in this case "yes".) So, the thing happened. From our POV, it appears that God did something He would not have otherwise done BUT FOR our prayer. I just don't think it works like that from God's POV.