Answered prayer or coincidence?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RosesforMary
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

RosesforMary

Guest
Hi,

First of all, I hope this is the right place to post this and apologies if it isn’t…

Here is my question:
How do you distinguish between an answered prayer and a coincidence? Or do you not believe in coincidence and instead see every apparent coincidence as the work of God?

In an example that just happened to me today: I was with a friend who wanted to get some cash out of an ATM, so we went to one and she put her card in. Then the machine wouldn’t give it back and crashed and wouldn’t do anything for a quite a long time. So we pressed the buttons and hit it for a bit and my friend had a bit of a panic because she really needed the money. Then, I just said a quick prayer and then asked Saint Anthony (I thought it was kinda lost, as it wouldn’t come out… I don’t know - I couldn’t think of a more relevant saint… Anyone?) to intercede for me. Then, literally 5 seconds later, it started working and spat the card out.

Would you see this as just a coincidence (we had been waiting for a long time before I prayed, maybe the machine just needed that time to start working), or as an answered prayer?

This is important to me especially as it seems to be a key difference between an atheist and a Christian viewpoint. One points to coincidence, and then other, God.

Thanks in advance for your (name removed by moderator)ut!
 
That would be called a ‘Godincidence’ 👍

The differece is the faith of a mustard seed. I was talking with our priest recently about my husbands healing. He said - in his colquial (I can’t spell) Pennsylvania Dutch - 'you’se don’t understand - you’se got faith. It takes that solitary moment of prayer and faith to make things work. I see it all the time. No it was not coincidence, it was your prayer and St. Athony’s intervention.
 
I’ve heard plenty of coincidence stories regarding prayer.

I personally think that’s how God prefers to usually answer prayer. There may be a few exceptions where a miracle is unusually overwhelming. But in the cases of coincidence, I think He leaves room for Faith, to practice believing without seeing and seeing the Invisible things of God at work.

As the Fox said to the Little Prince…

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Regards.
 
One way to discern coincidence vs. answered prayer is proximity. You were praying for help that you needed immediately, and suddenly the ATM starts working again. I’d say that is an answered prayer.
 
My experience has been, when my prayer is answered by God, He gives me the confirmation that it was indeed answered. When its coincidence, I know it thats all it is.

It all changed years ago, when I got into a little debate with my wife over this. She has a devotion to St. Theresa the Little Flower. Of course when a rose showed up at our house, she automatically claimed it as St Theresa answering her prayer.

I told her, that because she belongs to the Little Flower Society, which sends out all sorts of cards and junk mail with roses on them, these would be coincidence and should not count.

My wife’s point was that she knew internally, when it was answered prayer, regardless where the rose came from. I remained skeptical.

So, not long after that, I had a need and I decided to do a novena to the Little Flower. I also told St. Theresa not to send roses to my house, or to Church, where roses tend to show up there anyway. After the novena, during the month of March, as I was taking my lunch time walk, I found a single rose in full bloom on the side of the road. I knew without a doubt, this was confirming my prayer was heard and answered and sure enough it was.

Jim
 
Jim, thanks for your story. I and my girlfriend got a rose from Saint Therese too. I was praying for my g/f to have a job. I did the novena, and I oddly asked for a yellow rose - I don’t like yellow color for rose much…and that was why I chose to ask her. 8 days after the novena, a single yellow rose was sent to me and placed on my office’s desk. 😃 Then, I knew our prayer will be granted soon; one month later, the job that my g/f has been waiting for … finally was posted and she applied and got the job offered!!!

Regarding the coincidence – in praying, there will be nothing to be considered as coincidence. By grace of God, we could see every little thing happening in our live whether something bad or good happen to us, it is not just a conincidence.
 
water said:
Regarding the coincidence – in praying, there will be nothing to be considered as coincidence. By grace of God, we could see every little thing happening in our live whether something bad or good happen to us, it is not just a coincidence.
Click to expand...
:amen:

Well said, water.
 
RosesforMary said:
Hi,

First of all, I hope this is the right place to post this and apologies if it isn’t…

Here is my question:
How do you distinguish between an answered prayer and a coincidence? Or do you not believe in coincidence and instead see every apparent coincidence as the work of God?

In an example that just happened to me today: I was with a friend who wanted to get some cash out of an ATM, so we went to one and she put her card in. Then the machine wouldn’t give it back and crashed and wouldn’t do anything for a quite a long time. So we pressed the buttons and hit it for a bit and my friend had a bit of a panic because she really needed the money. Then, I just said a quick prayer and then asked Saint Anthony (I thought it was kinda lost, as it wouldn’t come out… I don’t know - I couldn’t think of a more relevant saint… Anyone?) to intercede for me. Then, literally 5 seconds later, it started working and spat the card out.

Would you see this as just a coincidence (we had been waiting for a long time before I prayed, maybe the machine just needed that time to start working), or as an answered prayer?

This is important to me especially as it seems to be a key difference between an atheist and a Christian viewpoint. One points to coincidence, and then other, God.

Thanks in advance for your (name removed by moderator)ut!
Click to expand...
We are often times at odds with the supernatural because we live in a material and natural world.

As a catholic, I don’t believe in coincidence, especially where prayer is involved.
Of course there are situations where coincidence is applicable. But, if you are in interior prayer or overt and verbal prayer…there is no coincidence. God is answering…say “thank you Lord” when He makes His presence so clearly known to you.

If I help someone out of love or even courtesy, and the person says “thank you” - I say “you’re welcome”.
If the person takes me for granted and says nothing…I say “you’re welcome” in my heart.

Don’t take the Lord for granted.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.
 
Hi “Roses” 👋 welcome to the forum! I think the important thing to remember here, is your faith. You displayed the faith in Almighty God… through your prayer to St. Anthony. And that faith is rewarded, more than we know. I agree with the others, I too… would accept this as an answered prayer. St. Anthony is a wonder worker, without doubt!

(BTW… St. Therese once sent me a rose, as well. It was in a dream. I had been praying to her for something… and a few weeks later (after I had forgotten about my prayer), I dreamt that I saw a lovely, silvery clam shell. The shell was open (a very old Christian symbol). On the shell, there was laid a single long stem, rose bud. The color was unearthly. It was a beautiful, swirling crimson red, but the outer edges were tinged with yellowish gold.

When I woke up… I was astounded and remembered, at once… that I had been praying to St. Therese. I felt this an acknowledgement that she had indeed received my prayer, and had prayed for my intentions. She and I have been close friends, ever since).

God bless you! 🙂
 
Thanks everyone 🙂 I appreciate your help.
mangy_dog said:
say “thank you Lord” when He makes His presence so clearly known to you.
Click to expand...
Don’t worry - I did say thank you (many many times)!
That was my immediate reaction.
Then I just imagined speaking to one of my friends who is atheist and how she would simply put it down to coincidence. So I thought I better check out how people who believe perceive these things 🙂

God bless!
 
Over the last few years I’ve had the good fortune to ride my motorcycles all over North America, 100s of thousands of miles. I always start each cross country ride with a prayer for my safety and to look out for me.

Last Feburary I was returning from Key West, and was passing through a small town in the Florida Panhandle, when I felt a jolt in my rear tire. I proceeded on a few blocks, but then thought, “I better check what happened.” I stopped the bike and found a bolt buried in my rear tire all the way to the head. I pulled a 5 inch bolt out and my tire went flat in 20 seconds.

I have a plug kit, and compressor, for just such a occasion, but I never had to use it before. I had a huge hole to plug, and not sure of the procedure. “Please God, help me do this right, otherwise I’m gonna hafta to call a BMW dealer to come get me, and that’s gonna be big bucks and a whole day lost.”

I was just about to get started when a pick up truck pulls in behind me, and asks me if I need any help. “yeah, I have a flat and not sure how to do this.” “Here lemme coach ya.” Just so happens this guy is a diesel mechanic with all kinds of tools, he is also a member of the BMW club, and pluged many tires in his day. I could not have special ordered more qualified partner. It was amazing. “Thank you God.”

With his coaching I easily plugged my tire, and got out my compressor to air the unit back up, only it didn’t work. “I don’t know what’s wrong, it was working the last time I checked it.” “When was that?” “A long time ago.”

Not to worry, a second truck pulled in. This time a young man, that owned a performance cycle shop 50 miles awway. “Can I help?” “Yes, I hada flat, plugged it, but can’t air it up because my compressor is bogus.” “Here lemme get mine out.” “You carry around a mini compressor in your truck?” “Yeah doesn’t everybody?”

And there ya have it. Noway this is conincidence, He not only provided me help, but the fact 2 highly qualified guys, just happened to be in the same spot as me in a forgotten Panhandle town, of a few hundred people, that doesn’t just happen. Not gonna convince me otherwise.

I thanked them both profusely and was back on the road 20 minutes later, praising God.

I was meeting my wife at the beach for a few days of R and R and arrived only a few minutes late. I told her my plight as towhy I was late. “Man, we better go to the VIgil Mass this afternoon.” “No kidding.” At Mass I gave it all back to Him, who has looked after me all these many miles.
 
Some prayers get answered as and when we want them. Some not, and it’s all for God to understand - we humans just stand here expecting things.

But in light of St. Anthony being Patron of lost things - and based on your description of the incident - I’d say it’s an answered prayer. There’s a hymn sung to St. Anthony - I won’t type it all but here’s the refrain:

The sea obeys, and fetters break, and lifeless limbs Thou dost restore.
Whilst treasures lost are found again, when young and old Thine aid implore.
Congratulations on having your prayer answered in unjamming “fetters” of a stubborn ATM - even the Banks can’t baffle Heaven !
(Did you call the Bank? Let them know - for the sake of the account and for others who might encounter same problem. And don’t forget to say a prayer of Thanksgiving to St. Anthony - and perhaps a donation to the poor in his name.)
 
I think it was an answered prayer. St Anthony is great. One time my husband took apart one of the upstairs toilets and put the innards in a box until he got around to fixing the toilet (which wasn’t for a few months). When he went to fix the toilet, we couldn’t find the box with the parts. We hunted all over the house. Finally I prayed to St. Anthony, and it wasn’t 15 minutes later that I opened the coat closet for something else, and lo and behold I noticed this box tucked away on the shelf, almost out of sight. It was the box with the toilet parts.😃

My then-Protestant son-in-law was very observant of all this, and it wasn’t long before I heard him talking about praying to St. Anthony when he lost something. BTW, he is now Catholic.🙂
 
I also don’t think there is such a thing as coincidence, that it’s God-incidence.
 
RosesforMary said:
Thanks everyone 🙂 I appreciate your help.

Don’t worry - I did say thank you (many many times)!
That was my immediate reaction.
Then I just imagined speaking to one of my friends who is atheist and how she would simply put it down to coincidence. So I thought I better check out how people who believe perceive these things 🙂

God bless!
Click to expand...
Amen. 🙂
 
Hi RosesForMary-

I had to write to you, as in the last couple of weeks, I have had two like experiences. I used to have the same questions; answered prayer or coincidence. And I realized that a person can always justify these as coincidences. However, because we have faith, I feel more secure each day putting these down as answered prayers from God.

About 2 weeks ago, my fiance and I had a heavy (and repeated numerous times) discussion, re: should we wait for a few months before having children. We’re getting married in 3 weeks, and really should figure it out. Both of us would prefer to not wait, but at the same time, we’d like to have a start on paying off some bills that I’ve acquired. So we prayed about it, and two days later, at work, one of my co-workers came up and asked how the wedding planning was going. Then she randomly kicked into “There is no good time to have children”. That was my answer, and all I needed.

The other time; I wrote out a check for my rent, to my Landlord, and stuck it in an envelope with his name on the front. Two days later, I couldn’t find it, and worried that I might have stuck it in the mailbox by accident. We’ve had a rash of theft in the last few months and I was very concerned. A couple of days later, I was at work and another co-worker came up, and handed me the envelope with my landlords’ name on it. I had used an envelope from work, not intending to mail it, and it had a return address on it, of my work place. And so it got returned there. To me.

God was watching out for me.
 
Ljrm18 said:
About 2 weeks ago, my fiance and I had a heavy (and repeated numerous times) discussion, re: should we wait for a few months before having children. We’re getting married in 3 weeks
Click to expand...
Thank you for your answer, and congratulations and best wishes to you and your fiance for the future!

God bless! 🙂
 
Coincidence.

Today, I misplaced my cell phone. I looked for it for 20 minutes and finally found it…no prayers were used.

If I had said a prayer and then found the phone, it would only be a coincidence.

I can’t accept that God would use his divine powers to spit an ATM card out of a machine.

On another matter, why not simply pray directly to God? Why pray to someone else, and then ask them to go and ask God for the favour?
 
I dont believe in coincidence either. All is The Holy Spirit, while some occurences remain Mystery as to meaning and implication. I was reading a good article a few days ago - and what struck me was the statement that at some point in our lives we will have to accept that we are human and limited on all fronts and let ourselves be human, and let God be God.

Blessings - Barb:)
 
BarbaraTherese said:
I dont believe in coincidence either. All is The Holy Spirit, while some occurences remain Mystery as to meaning and implication. I was reading a good article a few days ago - and what struck me was the statement that at some point in our lives we will have to accept that we are human and limited on all fronts and let ourselves be human, and let God be God.

Blessings - Barb:)
Click to expand...
Remember, if your stuck at sea, pray to God, but row the boat to shore!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top