Andy...

I haven’t stopped thinking about what he asked me yesterday. How do you know if God is blessing your life or if its coincidence? Is there even such a thing as coincidence? I thought I knew the answers to these questions, but as I tried to reply I realized how lost I was on this topic.

I proposed a few ideas such as praying or trying to feel the Spirit testify of God’s influence in such actions, but it didn’t feel like what I was saying was the WHOLE answer. Plus there is the whole idea of, “do things just happen, for no good reason”?

So we moved on that night and talked about other things, but I began to analyze the ensuing events of the night. Its amazing how many times I had to ask myself if some little thing had been said or done as coincidence, or if God had inspired that thing to be said or done. Were we a coincidence? Was what we were doing a coincidence? Or was that night just one big blessing?

I decided to look in a few places to see if anyone, with more authority on the subject, had anything to say on the topic. A simple Google search helped me to find what a modern day philosopher said. “Some may count experiences simply as a nice coincidence, but I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. I repeat again, the Lord’s tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence.”

I took it a step further and searched for the word “coincidence” in the scriptures. Not one time in The Holy Bible does the word ever appear.

All this on top of personal experiences, I believe that there are no coincidences. That God does exist and love us. Sometimes He allows bad things to happen so that we can grow, become better people, and help others along the way. These trials may seem more than we can handle, “but God is faithful... [and will] make a way to escape, that [we] may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). He provides us with blessings and tender mercies. These are his gifts to us so that this insanely chaotic life can be a bit easier; that we may bear our trials.