God’s Will or Coincidence? (Pt. 2)

Boy, time flies when you're on vacation. I'm sorry this was so late. Although I doubt anyone noticed :P

Oftentimes, even if circumstances seem to tell me one thing, how do I know that it isn’t coincidence? If everything that happens is planned by God, then does that mean coincidences don’t exist? Let’s take a completely fictitious, crazy example that in no way reflects my life. Say… I’m interested in a girl (once again, let me remind you, dear readers, that this is just an example, don’t read into this!). And I pray to God about her. “Dear Lord, if this girl is the one for me, give me a sign!” Now, maybe a couple of weeks later, I find myself serving food to the homeless shelter with that girl. Wow! Is that a miracle or what? This must be a sign from God! Or is it? Couldn’t this just be simply a harmless coincidence?

I’ve read many psychological texts which say basically that when you are interested or paying attention to something, you are more apt to find linkages or coincidences pertaining to that something. It’s like if you like a movie star and then you find out that both of you like the color blue. If you didn’t like the star, you could care less what the star’s favorite color is, but because you are interested, you say to yourself that it’s fate or something. I think that same effect happens when I’m looking for signs from God. If I am interested in my future, I subconsciously start looking for any connections, no matter how tenuous that would support my decision.

But maybe that’s how God works! Maybe for big life-altering decisions, He wants you to look out for any confirmation, no matter how slight. In this case, there are no coincidences, at least with respect to the decision. Does God order every detail of someone’s steps all the time? No, I don’t believe that. That is why God Himself, created rules. These rules aren’t man’s rules like Blackaby’s. No, these are natural rules ingrained in his creation. These are rules like you need a sperm and an egg to create a baby. Or less controversially, rules like everything exerts some force of gravity, and the magnitude of that force is directly proportional to the mass of the object. Therefore since we are massivly smaller than Earth, we are attracted to it, rather than the other way around. So if I were to fall off a building, it’s not God who is pushing me toward the ground, it’s the law of gravity that’s doing it. So when some accidents happen, there may not be God’s hand in it, it’s nature following the rules that God created. But God does order our steps. I truly believe He’s got an idea of what my future self should be. And he creates situations where I can become closer to that future ideal or I can fail in that situation. But luckily for me and you, He doesn’t give up when we fail. Honestly, thank God for his patience. When we do fail, He will set up other situations where I get the chance again to be that future self.

So, how do I know something is God’s will? It’s easy, it occurs through the situations of your life, or circumstances as Blackaby puts it. And even if you do mess up that situation horribly, don’t worry, you aren’t forever on the wrong path. God will simply set up more and more things in your way that will nudge you in the right direction. Another way to look at it is, if you find yourself being challenged with the same types of challenges, and you’ve run away from them in the past, maybe you should stop and re-examine your decision closely. Maybe it’s really a message from God.