God is not my lucky charm

(click on pic to listen)

One of the dumb things that many smart Christians believe is that God brings good luck or good fortune.
George Forman (Forman Grills) – In 1974, before he went to Africa to fight Muhammad Ali, a friend gave him a Bible to take along on my trip. He said, “George, keep this with you for good luck.” George believed the Bible was just a shepherd’s handbook, probably because the only verse he knew was “the Lord is my shepherd.” But he was always looking for luck, so he carried that Bible with him. He also had lucky pennies and good luck charms, so now he added the “lucky” Bible to his collection of superstitious items. After he lost the fight, he threw the Bible away. He never even opened it. He thought, “The Bible didn’t help me win, so why do I need it?”

There are many people (Christians and non-Christians alike) who believe that God is their good luck charm. This is nothing but an urban myth.

I found out it was a myth (an urban legend) last week. I am a Christ follower, so obviously God would be on my side and the side of the teams that I cheer for. As I was watching the Cubbies beat the team with the best record in baseball and who won the division by winning 100 games, a team, second only to the Yankees in world series appearances and wins, I prayed, “O God, let the Cardinals get that much-needed hit. O God, stop the Cubbies from hitting so many home runs.” Well God didn’t answer my prayer. My good,luck charm prayer didn’t work. I was totally disappointed that God didn’t see things my way. Now I have to bear the pain of watching them move on to the National league Championship series. This almost cost my relationship with God. God didn’t come through. He didn’t answer my prayer. I know this is trivial ….. but if we are honest ….. we do the same thing – if God doesn’t come through in the clutch – what good is he?

Many Christians wouldn’t call him a good luck charm but they say things like, “with God on my side, we can’t fail.” With God on my side, “all things are possible”. Or when we they experience success, they say, “God was in it.”  Those are all religious phrases many well meaning Christians use for “God is our good luck charm”.  This is the reason why so many Christians get so disappointed in God. Many think… since God is on my side, meaning he’s my good luck charm, if he doesn’t come through in the clutch, why on earth do we need him?

Many Christians believe that if we live God’s way it will bring us good fortune, many believe that God reaches down and tips the scales their way and life will be better and easier than before. After all, God would not let anything happen to those who believe in Him.

This is  why God is so powerless in the life of many who say they are Christ followers. He’s not really the Lord of their life – he’s the “lucky charm” of their life.

Let me challenge you early – Is he the “lucky charm’ of your life or the Lord of your life? There are some very distinct differences.

If He is your Lucky Charm you are always ….

• Wanting something from God
• Wanting God to do something for you
• Wanting God to tip the scales in your favor
• Wanting God to give you “success”

You stop following Him or trusting Him when things get tough.
If He is the Lord of Your Life you are always:

• Wanting to give God your life (seeking and pursuing Him)
• Wanting God to do something in you
• Blessing those around you by serving them
• Not needing “success” or answers to prayer to keep following Him
• Aware that God is with you in the good and bad

You continue to follow Him because you trust Him.

If he is the Lord of your life, we understand that the only thing God promises us is forgiveness, eternity, compassion, and mercy. He doesn’t promise us we will win the lottery. He doesn’t promise us that “everything thing is going to be alright.” He doesn’t promise us we will get the car and house and job that we want. He doesn’t promise us good health, godly kids, good marriage or the perfect life. That’s wishful thinking. That’s wanting God as your good luck charm.

In Psalm 73, you read about an Israeli named Asaph. He was frustrated over the success of the wicked and the long running misfortune of those who were attempting to live God’s way.

Doesn’t it make you sick to your stomach when you see the wicked prosper or you see evil win? It’s nauseating every time ISIS makes the news for killing innocent people. It’s nauseating to see the rich oppressing the poor in the name of greed. It’s nauseating every time to read about how rampant human trafficking (a modern-day term for forced slavery) is within the US and around the world for the sake of making a dollar and making our life better.  At the same time,  those who are doing it the right way are not having the same good fortune. This is Asaph’s frustration. He was disappointed with God.

He says in Psalm 73:13-14

Did I keep my heart pure for nothing?
Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?
I get nothing but trouble all day long;
every morning brings me pain.

Asaph was tempted just to give up on God, but before he did, he sought an understanding. He took his complaint to God and waited for an answer. Then one day, he entered the sanctuary of God, it hit him. For the first time he fully grasped the eternal destiny of the wicked. He saw their terrible end. Suddenly his plight didn’t seem so unfair or his deal so bad.  Asaph discovered that God has this all under control. If God would have been just his “lucky charm”, Asaph would have bailed on God a long time ago.

Many before us have bought into this myth and have been totally mislead by believing it. This is how a myth becomes a truth. If enough people believe it so it must be true. This myth has been around since the beginning of time.

Job was the Donald Trump of his day ( except a bit more humble). Job had already lost his livestock, his house, his kids, and his servants in chapter 1 of Job. Look at what happens in Job 2:

4 Satan replied to the LORD, “Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life. 5 But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
6 “All right, do with him as you please,” the LORD said to Satan. “But spare his life.” 7 So Satan left the LORD’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.
8 Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
10 But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

Did you catch what Job’s wife said to him? She said, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” Why did she say this? It was because she believed God had been their lucky charm and brought them success. Job must had done something terrible because of his horrendous bad luck.  Job’s friends were also convinced that he must have done something terribly wrong to bring such misfortune into this life.

I love Job’s response and it reveals that God is really the Lord of his life:

“Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”

This might be a hard truth to accept but He is the Lord of the good and the bad that happen in your life.

To believe God is our “lucky charm” or that He brings us success and he doesn’t allow bad things to happen to us …. Well …. If you believe that you are being “punked” by the Enemy. This is a dangerous frame of mind to believe that God is our luck charm. We know that if were in charge we wouldn’t allow the wicked to prosper. If we were in charge, we wouldn’t let the evil people win. We wouldn’t allow anything to happen to Christians if we were charge. If we were in charge only the good people would experience success. If we were in charge only wicked people would experience tragedy, and trial. If we were in charge only the Christians would get the high paying jobs. If we were in charge abortion would be wiped out. If we were in charge we would take away all the rights of the homosexuals.

But we are not in charge. We are not God. There is evil. The wicked do prosper. The righteous do suffer. The wicked do suffer. The righteous do prosper.

The Enemy wants us to believe this myth that God is our lucky charm and brings us good fortune. Why? Because he wants you to curse God when things go bad.  The Enemy understands that if you were in charge – no one would need God. He wants you and I to doubt his existence. He wants you and I to doubt He is in control. He wants you and I to be like Job’s wife! Full of anger and disappointment and live in fear that God has left you. Ultimately, he wants you and I to lose hope.

Letting Him be the Lord of your life, from the human point of view, is the most unlucky thing you can do (at least for a short time) because what he asked us to do is so unfair.

He tells us we need to:

• take up our cross
• go the extra mile
• love our enemy
• lose our life to gain it
• give everything to the poor
• love Him more than our spouse, family, and friends.
• give up everything and follow Him

From God’s point of view, it’s the greatest thing you can do. He wants to give us eternal rewards.

You must come to grips with whether or not you want him only as your luck charm or you want him to be Lord of your life.

There was a big story floating around Facebook about the Pope saying that Jesus, in human terms, in the eyes of the world, was a failure. If you read the story, the Pope is right (in  human terms). Even his disciples thought he had failed, this is why they scattered.  They were scared. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to end this way.

If God is a lucky charm, Jesus was the most unlucky person that walked the earth. He was spit on, shamed, mocked, beaten, nailed to the cross, and died the most cruel death a human could die. If you call that lucky …. well ….. someone should have bought Jesus a rabbits foot so all those things wouldn’t have happen to him. After all, rabbits can feel and sense danger (watch the good luck charm video by clicking the picture at the top of this post- it’s only 2 minutes long).

We must answer this question honestly:

Is He Lord of your life or just a lucky charm?