Coincidence or Providence

Have you ever experienced a series of seemingly random events that somehow aligned and caused you to be in the right place at the right time or absent from where you were expected to be at what turns out to be the wrong time? It’s Monday morning—you’ve set your alarm but somehow you still wake up late, get to work and hear about the major accident earlier on the same road you would have been on at the same time you would have been on it had you not woken up late? The random elevator ride where you strike up a polite conversation with a stranger who says just what you need to hear without knowing you, your life story or the type of day you’re having. These and the other similar seemingly random things that happen to us all the time, we often write off as coincidences.

“They are not…It is the Providence of God.”

Providence is the protective care of God; God’s divine intervention and direction in all creation. The hand of God at work.

“Providence is God at work between the lines”

When the Lord is the head of your life, nothing “just happens” by coincidence or happenstance. God has been intentional since our forefathers. Since the ram found himself stuck in the bush just as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, since Moses floated directly to Pharaoh’s daughter, since Joseph was thrown into the pit and sold into slavery before his brother Rueben could come back and rescue him. The Lord has been sovereign since the beginning of time. His sovereignty and His intentions to accomplish His purposes won’t stop with you.  His intervention and His promises to direct our footsteps has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today and will remain the same forever.

IT'S GOING TO WORK OUT. All things work together for the good of those who love (obey) God, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Big, small, good, or bad the Lord is directing every detail of your life so that situations you encounter will end up for your good. As random, unexpected or unpleasant as things may seem at the time, the Lord has promised us that it will work out, not just work out but turn out for our good.  Trust in His happy ending.

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS. The word of God says “the footsteps of the Righteous are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way and He busies Himself with his every step”(Psalm 37:23) If you're a child of God, believe that you are where you are supposed to be. Yes, where you are now is not where you imagined you would be at this age. Yes, your life could have been different if you went to that other school or took that different job or moved to the new city. But that is not where the Omniscient hand of God has placed you.  Abandon the "what if's". When you surrender your will and way to the Lord you will come to know that obedience opens and closes doors and redirects paths- sometimes to unfamiliar places, but will always lead to the will of God for your life.

GOD IS IN THE DETAILS. He cares about every detail of your life. Everything that concerns you, concerns Him. I’ve always been amazed at how much detail and care He puts into nature and the aspects of life that don’t involve human beings. Isaiah 40:26 tells us that God is so powerful that He calls the millions of stars out by name and He does not skip one.  The birds neither sow or reap but our Lord feeds them (Matthew 6:26). If the Lord is this intentional about the stars and the birds how can anything just happen to me-- His child, the one who He sent His own son to die and save. No part of our lives is hidden from Him, He sees everything and He divinely intervenes.

Our human minds are finite and we can’t always comprehend what the Lord is doing, we rarely have insight into the “big picture” or the end game, but our God does. He knows why he has allowed different things to happen in our lives that don’t necessarily line up with the vison or method we had for ourselves, but we must accept that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8).

We may not always understand what the Lord is doing and we may not even like it sometimes but if our hearts are set on trusting God will we come to understand that He chose us, He cares and He will work everything out for our good according to His perfect will for our lives.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” Ephesians 1:11

So, the next time something unexpected comes your way good or bad- Thank God for His Providence and His perfect plan.