Think it is a coincidence you are reading this?

The word coincidence is used only once in the New Testament, and it was by Jesus Himself in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:31). Jesus said, “Now by coincidence (by chance) a certain priest was going down along that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.”

The word coincidence is translated from the Greek word synkyrian, which is a combination of two words: sun and kurios. Sun means “together with,” and kurious means “supreme in authority.” So a biblical definition of coincidence would be “that which occurs together by God’s providential arrangement of circumstances.”

Citing coincidence is how we humans explain unexpected events and surprise meetings. But just because we are taken by surprise does not mean that God is. Scripture is clear that God allows sinful humans to make mistakes and reap the consequences of those mistakes, but only a sovereign God could also promise that He will make “all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

There are no coincidences in the Providence of God. In ways known only to Himself, God takes even our mistakes and unplanned events and weaves them together to fulfill His purposes. What appears to us as random chance is in fact overseen by a sovereign God who knows, among all things, the number of hairs on every head (Luke 12:7).

Adapted from gotquestions.com