I was talking to an evangelical friend of mine today. He was stressed about all his homework and had just found out that another person in his group project had taken on more than his fair share of the work, lessening the workload of my friend. My friend saw that as God really coming through for him in that moment. Is that too much? Is that like saying, so thankful for God causing my teacher to cancel class that morning because I was really wanting some more sleep? Is it possible to see God "too much" in daily life? Or maybe I am just not inviting Him enough into the small moments of my day. Thoughts?

Goodbull_19 said:

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I was talking to an evangelical friend of mine today. He was stressed about all his homework and had just found out that another person in his group project had taken on more than his fair share of the work, lessening the workload of my friend. My friend saw that as God really coming through for him in that moment. Is that too much? Is that like saying, so thankful for God causing my teacher to cancel class that morning because I was really wanting some more sleep? Is it possible to see God "too much" in daily life? Or maybe I am just not inviting Him enough into the small moments of my day. Thoughts?

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I agree with your friend. God is involved in everything that those that love him do.

A good illustration of God's involvement in everything could be highlighted below. You could accurately write your address like this:

Good Bull19, 123 Texas Ave., College Station, Texas, United States of America, Earth, Solar System, Orion Spiral Arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Universe, The Mind of God.

I do think God is active in people's lives, and He is responsible for many small and large mercies on a regular basis. I would be very careful give those two examples, though. Being overwhelmed by homework is most often a result of poor time management and planning. It's easy to get distracted by partying, family and friend drama, relationships, sports, video games, etc and lose track of time or procrastinate. Same with sleep. In most cases needing extra morning sleep is due to poor planning the night before. If God is helping him get through occasional random occurences such as this then great. If these problems are habitual then your friend needs to make some changes and not try to rely on God to bail him out of chronic bad planning.

If God is responsible for all the good things in his life, wouldn't God also be responsible for all the negative things in his life? So God was also the cause of the extra homework that started the problem.
This leads to the whole free will discussion this board has had many times.

God is basically Alcohol

He should tell the person doing extra work that God is the one to blame for him not pulling his weight, not him.

I just want one athlete that loses the game in the end say "well..... God made me drop that touchdown"

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I just want one athlete that loses the game in the end say "well..... God made me drop that touchdown"

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No one wants the first time God audibly speaks to us to be "I gotta pay Eljiah $20 because of you bum ***. I told you not to eat those twinkies"

If you've decided you believe in God, you can convince yourself that every small thing that happens is God being involved in your life. Stuff like this seems to me to just be conformation bias.

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If you've decided you believe in God, you can convince yourself that every small thing that happens is God being involved in your life

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It just depends on how you want to view God. Do I think God is manipulating a bunch of knobs and levers to the benefit of me and/or the detriment of others? No. Do I think we can thank God for whatever happens since we can't discern his action or inaction? Yes.

diehard03 said:

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If you've decided you believe in God, you can convince yourself that every small thing that happens is God being involved in your life

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It just depends on how you want to view God. Do I think God is manipulating a bunch of knobs and levers to the benefit of me and/or the detriment of others? No. Do I think we can thank God for whatever happens since we can't discern his action or inaction? Yes.

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Why would you not think that? The Bible is full of examples of God stepping in to do things specifically for the benefit of people, many times to the detriment of others.

I'm not being rude or snarky, I'm genuinely asking.

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Why would you not think that? The Bible is full of examples of God stepping in to do things specifically for the benefit of people, many times to the detriment of others.

I'm not being rude or snarky, I'm genuinely asking.

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I meant in any given situation. Like you mentioned, there is clearly examples of in the Bible. But I can't discern whether he is or is not. But I don't think it really matters to make this distinction, if God is who we say he is.

Goodbull_19 said:

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I was talking to an evangelical friend of mine today. He was stressed about all his homework and had just found out that another person in his group project had taken on more than his fair share of the work, lessening the workload of my friend. My friend saw that as God really coming through for him in that moment. Is that too much? Is that like saying, so thankful for God causing my teacher to cancel class that morning because I was really wanting some more sleep? Is it possible to see God "too much" in daily life? Or maybe I am just not inviting Him enough into the small moments of my day. Thoughts?

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It's good to see things with "the mind of Christ". However there is also discernment as to whether what happened was the will of God in your life or just a circumstantial thing. But to be thankful for all things good or bad is a healthy practice.

Well, He is omnipotent and all....

Everything that exists comes from God, so everything mystically teaches us something about Him. But, human beings are truly free in that they have free will. I think you have to understand that in some way these two things are sometimes in alignment and sometimes in opposition. While God providentially provides good, and ultimately prevails, it is coordinating with, through, and even in spite of human activity. Praise God for the choices of others, sure, but sometimes your group member doing more or less work is just that.

I've always felt slightly uncomfortable with this attitude, especially since it often puts God in the magical fairy godmother role and can turn evil genie if someone has a bad day. It is a very Calvinist/predestination line of thought.. as though we are floating along and things just happen to us...and good things are evidence of "God's favor" which is a terribly destructive mindset.

I think the best reaction to the situation in the OP is to be incredibly grateful to your classmate (and offer to reciprocate) then thank God for creating diligent classmate to support you.

I agree. Notice how i said God is involved in what those who love Him DO.

Also... being the person who usually did most of the group project work in most of my classes....

If I were OP, I would consider examining my life and how I am perceived that my classmate didnt trust me to do my share of the project.

Sometimes I think we are related.