Have you ever been thinking about someone and then suddenly they show up at your home or you run into them at the store? Or maybe your car breaks down right in front of a mechanic's shop. When these kinds of things happen we often refer to them as coincidence or chance or maybe even fate, feelings as if luck has smiled upon us.
But are chance and coincidence really how things happen in our lives? Doesn't God, by His divine providence, have a say in all that happens to us? Not only does God have a say in all things but there is nothing that occurs apart from His knowledge or permission. In other words, God isn't surprised by anything that happens in this world and is never caught off guard. (I won't go into my thought on the tragedy in Haiti but for a really great read on where God was when the earthquake struck Haiti, let me urge you to read this article by Dr. Al Mohler. It is worth the 10 minutes it will take you to read it).
What is chance? We might think of it in terms of rolling a pair of dice or playing the lottery. Our odds of you rolling the winner numbers on the first try are pretty high and even higher for you to pick winning lottery numbers. Yet I would argue that chance has no bearing at all on whether or not you win the game or the lottery. Pure chance would mean that you didn't even cast the die but you won anyway or that you didn't even bother to purchase a ticket but you still won the lottery. If we put even the least little bit of effort to roll the die or to write down a sequence of numbers then we have acted in the situation and therefore we have become a part of the equation.
Let me put it another way. You may consider it sheer luck to break down in front of a mechanic's shop. But pure chance would mean that your car broke down without you even driving it and suddenly appeared in front of mechanic's shop. But since you were actually driving the car when it broke down, you became part of the process by which the whole scene unfolds. Pure chance and coincidence means that life plays out without any other force, be it from you or someone else, acting upon it.
I write all that to illustrate the effect of God in all things. God does not exist in the realm of chance (which truly doesn't exit) but rather He dwells in the reality of providence. Consider some of the Scriptures which affirm God's "all-knowingness" (omniscience) and His involvement with this world:
Job 21:22 "Can anyone teach God knowledge, since He judges the exalted ones (angels)?"
Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble."
Psalm 139:1-6 "Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
1 Timothy 6:17 "Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things."
I think you get the point. God is a God who provides, not one who allows unforeseen forces or circumstances to rule the day. Knowing this and believing it opens us up to praise Him all the more, doesn't it? So the next time that "good fortune" falls into your lap consider the Source from which it truly came.
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