7. “We’ll Just Have to Pray for Good Luck”
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“We’ll Just Have to Pray for Good Luck”
I don’t remember the context in which I heard this statement, but I do remember how shocked I was to hear someone link prayer and luck in the same sentence. It’s obvious that if we live by prayer, then we believe in God and trust His wise providence. If we live by luck, then we believe in a world of chance over which nobody has any control. It’s depressing to see people read their horoscopes, consult tarot cards, pay gurus to channel a “spirit,” and even phone television spiritualists for help, totally ignorant of the fact that none of these activities will enable them to understand or control the future.
I’ve noticed that people who mingle faith in God with faith in luck usually blame bad luck when they fail but rarely thank God when they succeed. If someone they don’t like succeeds, the reason is good luck and not hard work. If they themselves succeed, it was due to hard work, not the blessing of God. None of these people has the testimony of Abraham’s devoted servant: “As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey” (Gen. 24:27).
Jacob’s unwanted wife, Leah, may have had a trace of this kind of superstition in her genetic structure. She shared her maid Zilpah with Jacob and then gave the name “Gad” to the first son who was born to Zilpah (Gen. 30:9–11). Gad means “fortune” and was the name of a pagan god. Consider God’s response to the matter:
But as for you who forsake the LORD
and forget my holy mountain,
who spread a table for Fortune [Gad]
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny [Meni],
I will destine you for the sword. (Isa. 65:11–12)
Devout Jews put no confidence in such things as luck and chance because they believed that God Almighty was in control of the universe, and that included their personal lives and the future of their nation (Gen. 28:15; Ps. 34:20). From the human point of view, it sometimes appeared that “time and chance” were determining events (see Eccles. 9:11), but the Jews knew that Jehovah was on the throne.
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Prov. 16:33). It looked like luck that Ruth went to glean in the fields of Boaz, but this decision was an act of God’s providence. Even bitter Naomi recognized the hand of God in the event (Ruth 2:19–23). The movement of the donkeys in 1 Samuel 9 wasn’t chance, it was providence; and David’s frequent narrow escapes from King Saul were the result of heaven’s care more than David’s strategy: “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Ps. 121:2). New Testament Christians had the same kind of faith (Acts 4:27–30; Rom. 8:28), and so should we.