I found myself thinking about the concept of 'luck' a few days ago. The main ideas behind it indicate either some mysterious force that controls good and bad, ie., 'fate', or a throw of the dice, ie., pure chance and the combination of circumstances. These ideas don't really take into consideration the concept of God, though.
If something happens that we worked on turns out all right, that's more of a coincidence than luck. The word 'coincide' comes from the prefix 'co' and the root word 'incide'. 'Co' means "together" and 'incide' means "to fall upon". When added, the word means "to fall together," "to correspond," or "to agree". Because I believe in a sovereign God, I know that God is always working for the good of the saints. When a situation comes out all right, it's our plans falling together with God's.
Now, when our plans don't seem to meet up with their happy endings, it's usually because we aren't seeking to coincide with God's desires, but our own. Even though we don't always seek to please God, He always works everything out the way He intended to. This is providence. It isn't necessarily what we had in mind when we started out of the door, but it's what God had in mind even before we woke up.
Everything that God does in our lives will be for our ultimate benefit in some way. The more we adhere to the plans God lays out in His Word and trust Him, the more we see that 'luck' disappears entirely and what we called coincidences before now becomes completely providential. So I recommend that when you think of something as a coincidence, stop and consider that if your plans coincided with God's all along, then it was His faithfulness and sovereignty that brought the results.
In case some of y'all aren't as familiar with my habits, I have a tendency to make up little phrases and sayings that help me remember concepts. My latest buzz word is 'heart attack'. Now the concept behind a 'heart attack' is simple, but simply profound. *grins* When God really speaks to me through His Word, or someone else's words and the Holy Spirit convicts me of the issue, I call it a 'heart attack'.
Jesus speaks about heart issues in Matthew 15.18, 19: "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." If something is wrong on the outside, it's because it goes back to their heart. Jesus refers to this later in a confrontation with the Pharisees in Matthew 12.33: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit." If God's Spirit is talking to you about something that isn't matching up with true repentance and faith, He's essentially attacking your heart with the truth. John the Baptist gave this commandment: "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matthew 3.8)
Paul speaks about returning to the things of the world after tasting the Heavenly gift in Galatians 4.9: "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?" Remember, we used to have heart disease, but God saved us from death through the cure of His Son's atonement. If you're not having heart attacks, then you need to check your vital signs and make sure that you're in God's Word every day, in communication with your Great Physician and in fellowship with healthier believers.
God bless, y'all!
Grace and peace be with you,
~Curtis~
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Interesting blog, Curtis. In the past, whenever something would appear to just "happen" by what some would call a "stroke of luck" or "coincidence" Luke and I would always look at each other and say "Coincidence? I think not!" Because we know that nothing happens that God doesn't allow. What you seem to be talking about it what some Christians refer to as a "divine appointment". A meeting of people at certain times to have a certain outcome, if one is obedient to the voice of God. Of course, that is more with direct contact to people and not just situations or the working out of plans. Paul tells us that "God works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose."
Thanks for your thoughts! It's nice to see you posting again. :-p
*grins*
That verse that you referred to was exactly what I had in mind, too! I love that quote from The Incredibles, too. :-)
Recently, I've been learning quite a lot about the sovereignty of God. You know roughly where I lean theologically, so I won't open a can of that, lol. But it's so amazing to see how God's sovereignty can be applied unlimitedly to every single aspect of life and theology.
I've also been seeing how God gives little blessings like His arranging that a certain class of mine have a sub. the week I was horribly behind in h/w, haha. And always, it reminds me how unmerited all His blessings are. For example, the above, I certainly hadn't deserved a week of grace from h/w, lol.
Yea, sorry about the dry spell of blogging. My schedule has been insanely busy. Hopefully this will subside slightly at the pass of mid-terms. :-)
God bless, sis! Say 'hi' to the family for me!
~Curtis~
Romans 8:28 is the reference for that verse.
What quote from the Incredibles?
Yes, God with His infinite love, mercy, and sovereignty is part of what keeps me going when life gets rough.
and as far as unmerited favor, if we take a hard, honest look at our lives, we don't deserve ANY sort favor. It's all grace. We have such an amazing God!
I knew that, lol. *grins*
The quote from the school teacher when he says, "Coincidence? I think not!" :-)
Indeed! Haha, I just finished a long paper on the subject (11 pages). I probably won't post it on any of my blogs, but I'll e-mail it to you if you want to read through it. You might even agree with most of it. *grins*
God bless!
~Curtis~
just makin' sure. :-p
we didn't really know that was an incredible's quote, we just said it.
Post a Comment