It's late at night, and I tend to like to write about things that seem really important when I'm tired and then the next morning when I'm more clearly thinking, then I sometimes regret being so open about what I wrote and I have a feeling I will feel this way tomorrow too. However, I had a couple thoughts I want to share. when I get sleepy, and then I regret it in the morning....and no, I have not been drinking and I have not taken anything where I am under the influence of any substance.
I've been thinking about the discussion on this thread:
I know that I've experienced God's direct intervention in my life many times. Each time was different, so I can't lump them together and say this is how God usually works in my life. God has also answered probably thousands of my prayers. For a while I was seeing a few answers to prayers a week, but that was at a time in my life when I was going through difficulties and needed either those answers for physical help or emotionally they were needed. I have sometimes seen several answers to prayers in one day. I used to keep a journal of all the answers of prayers and it got too time consuming, so I stopped.
So, I see these things happen. But it's not like I can convince anyone else that God is doing them. In fact, sometimes I'm not really sure if the answer to prayer would have happened anyhow. There are many times when I've told God thank you for answering a prayer and then added, "If it was really You answering the prayer." Then I got to the place where I just think God orchestrates everything and I can tell Him thank you for whatever it was and not worry about the likelihood that it might have happened anyway and whether or not it was a divine intervention to make it happen or not.
And then, there are also lots of prayers that I pray that do not happen. So, then, sometimes I think probability-wise, is it just probabilities playing out that some will happen and some won't? Like the trading experiment of randomly trading a 50 tick stop loss and 50 tick target and not counting the cost of commission, then if the entries are completely random, then you'd expect to get about a 50% win rate. So, is that just what I've been noticing with my prayers being answered sometimes and sometimes not?
And this line of thinking has led me over the years to mentally categorize answers to prayers into those that were likely to happen anyway, not very likely to happen, highly unlikely, and then one last category of regardless of the likeliness of the prayer being answered, was the way in which the prayer was answered a likely event? Sorry if anyone is reading this and it's confusing. I'm just writing my thoughts out for the first time on this subject, so I might be rambling. Another time I might try to list some prayers that I remember for each category.
Anyhow, this brings me to another line of thinking. Not only have I seen unlikely prayers to get answered, get answered, but sometimes those have also been in an unlikely manner to be answered. Those are the times that I have been sometimes astonished that God has worked in the way that He did so that I would know that He did it....at least that's how I interpret it. And along with this comes what often appears to be more than just usual coincidences in my life. The one that happens the most often is when I have a certain matter on my mind and then the message that Sunday is teaching on that subject, or perhaps the message isn't on that subject, but one sentence the pastor says provides clarity. This isn't exactly proof of God's direct intervention, except that it happens frequently enough and usual with a spiritual matter that seems like God is trying to get my attention on, or provide me with better understanding, or even just encouragement to me.
I will tell about one time it seemed like I was blessed by a coincidence that seemed like it was given by God. I was driving to church and was singing a hymn and right when I was at the part where I was starting to sing the words, "But I know Whom I have believed" I turned on the radio, and the Christian radio was playing this very same song at this very same line, and what was really weird was that is was EXACTLY in sync with my singing. I was very surprised and even fiddled with the on and off button wondering if there was a way the radio could have been on quietly and I had subconsciously been singing with it, but there is no way that was possible because I hit the button to turn the radio on....if it had been on already then hitting the button would have turned it off. But this does not prove that God did it. I'm sure many people have the experience of thinking of a song and then turning the radio on and hearing the same song they were thinking about, especially if it's a top hit. It's just that this is just one example. There are others things, not other times with the radio, just other things that seem like they are more than coincidences.
By the way, I don't think it's healthy to try to read things into coincidences, even when it seem like they are sent from God. It's too easy to try to read too much into them. The only source of truth is the Bible and not coincidences.
I cannot make anybody else believe me about any of this. But there is one thing that is likely just a coincidence, yet it is still interesting. I'm not reading anything into it, meaning it doesn't mean anything. But when you consider that God holds everything together and knows the hairs on our head and the words we are going to speak before we speak them, then it's not hard to understand that God directs all the events in a believer's life.
Ok, so what is that one thing that I think is interesting, not for reading meaning into it, but simply for taking it for what it is. It is something that everyone on here can see for themselves and then laugh to them selves that it is simply a coincidence. Yes, I would agree with them that it is a coincidence. It really has no spiritual meaning. It is not a prediction of future events. It is just a coincidence. But did God make it happen? I have no idea. But in my mind, it's just something kind of funny, a coincidence, that maybe God did orchestrate, and why He would, I have no idea. But God orchestrates small details in our lives, so I guess I'll just say that I'm thankful for that. And I'll leave it up to you guys to think about where this is simply a usual coincidence that happens often on Elite Trader, or if perhaps, there was little bit of Divine intervention....for what purpose, I do not know.
Check this out.....the first person to respond to my first post in my first thread, Maintaining Self Discipline, was Expiated. I had never had any contact with him before, nor he with me. Yet we are both believers and it was only because in one of his posts in a trading journal he mentioned writing elsewhere, I discovered the religious section and that he was posting here. I had no intention of writing anything about God, I was only reading what Expiated wrote and was more than a little annoyed at the trolls that Expiated was blissfully unaware of because he had them on ignore. And that led to me posting in this section and that led to starting my own threads and that led to where I am rambling on and on while feeling very sleepy and I probably am not making any sense. Sorry. I am not proof reading this either, so this post might not flow together at all and it might have lots of errors. Well, back to the rest of the story...there is one more interesting coincidence....Expiated also wrote the last post in that journal. I had already decided I probably wouldn't write in it anymore, it wasn't like I was trying to make Expiated have the last post. Now someone needs to go write in the journal so that his post isn't the last, because it's too much of a coincidence.
And with that, I am going to zone out for the night! ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
I've been thinking about the discussion on this thread:
I know that I've experienced God's direct intervention in my life many times. Each time was different, so I can't lump them together and say this is how God usually works in my life. God has also answered probably thousands of my prayers. For a while I was seeing a few answers to prayers a week, but that was at a time in my life when I was going through difficulties and needed either those answers for physical help or emotionally they were needed. I have sometimes seen several answers to prayers in one day. I used to keep a journal of all the answers of prayers and it got too time consuming, so I stopped.
So, I see these things happen. But it's not like I can convince anyone else that God is doing them. In fact, sometimes I'm not really sure if the answer to prayer would have happened anyhow. There are many times when I've told God thank you for answering a prayer and then added, "If it was really You answering the prayer." Then I got to the place where I just think God orchestrates everything and I can tell Him thank you for whatever it was and not worry about the likelihood that it might have happened anyway and whether or not it was a divine intervention to make it happen or not.
And then, there are also lots of prayers that I pray that do not happen. So, then, sometimes I think probability-wise, is it just probabilities playing out that some will happen and some won't? Like the trading experiment of randomly trading a 50 tick stop loss and 50 tick target and not counting the cost of commission, then if the entries are completely random, then you'd expect to get about a 50% win rate. So, is that just what I've been noticing with my prayers being answered sometimes and sometimes not?
And this line of thinking has led me over the years to mentally categorize answers to prayers into those that were likely to happen anyway, not very likely to happen, highly unlikely, and then one last category of regardless of the likeliness of the prayer being answered, was the way in which the prayer was answered a likely event? Sorry if anyone is reading this and it's confusing. I'm just writing my thoughts out for the first time on this subject, so I might be rambling. Another time I might try to list some prayers that I remember for each category.
Anyhow, this brings me to another line of thinking. Not only have I seen unlikely prayers to get answered, get answered, but sometimes those have also been in an unlikely manner to be answered. Those are the times that I have been sometimes astonished that God has worked in the way that He did so that I would know that He did it....at least that's how I interpret it. And along with this comes what often appears to be more than just usual coincidences in my life. The one that happens the most often is when I have a certain matter on my mind and then the message that Sunday is teaching on that subject, or perhaps the message isn't on that subject, but one sentence the pastor says provides clarity. This isn't exactly proof of God's direct intervention, except that it happens frequently enough and usual with a spiritual matter that seems like God is trying to get my attention on, or provide me with better understanding, or even just encouragement to me.
I will tell about one time it seemed like I was blessed by a coincidence that seemed like it was given by God. I was driving to church and was singing a hymn and right when I was at the part where I was starting to sing the words, "But I know Whom I have believed" I turned on the radio, and the Christian radio was playing this very same song at this very same line, and what was really weird was that is was EXACTLY in sync with my singing. I was very surprised and even fiddled with the on and off button wondering if there was a way the radio could have been on quietly and I had subconsciously been singing with it, but there is no way that was possible because I hit the button to turn the radio on....if it had been on already then hitting the button would have turned it off. But this does not prove that God did it. I'm sure many people have the experience of thinking of a song and then turning the radio on and hearing the same song they were thinking about, especially if it's a top hit. It's just that this is just one example. There are others things, not other times with the radio, just other things that seem like they are more than coincidences.
By the way, I don't think it's healthy to try to read things into coincidences, even when it seem like they are sent from God. It's too easy to try to read too much into them. The only source of truth is the Bible and not coincidences.
I cannot make anybody else believe me about any of this. But there is one thing that is likely just a coincidence, yet it is still interesting. I'm not reading anything into it, meaning it doesn't mean anything. But when you consider that God holds everything together and knows the hairs on our head and the words we are going to speak before we speak them, then it's not hard to understand that God directs all the events in a believer's life.
The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the LORD, And He delights in his way [and blesses his path].
Psalm 37:23 Amplified Bible
Psalm 37:23 Amplified Bible
Check this out.....the first person to respond to my first post in my first thread, Maintaining Self Discipline, was Expiated. I had never had any contact with him before, nor he with me. Yet we are both believers and it was only because in one of his posts in a trading journal he mentioned writing elsewhere, I discovered the religious section and that he was posting here. I had no intention of writing anything about God, I was only reading what Expiated wrote and was more than a little annoyed at the trolls that Expiated was blissfully unaware of because he had them on ignore. And that led to me posting in this section and that led to starting my own threads and that led to where I am rambling on and on while feeling very sleepy and I probably am not making any sense. Sorry. I am not proof reading this either, so this post might not flow together at all and it might have lots of errors. Well, back to the rest of the story...there is one more interesting coincidence....Expiated also wrote the last post in that journal. I had already decided I probably wouldn't write in it anymore, it wasn't like I was trying to make Expiated have the last post. Now someone needs to go write in the journal so that his post isn't the last, because it's too much of a coincidence.
And with that, I am going to zone out for the night! ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
