QUESTION

I was wondering why some people believe in bad luck. However, Jesus Christ do not believe in luck, he believe in God. What would God says about bad luck?

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ANSWER

Thanks for the good question..

Instead of addressing the issue of “bad luck”, let’s consider the whole issue of “Luck”, whether good or bad. Now, before we can address the question let us first establish what “Luck” means. Dictionary--- [Luck: an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another; Examples: "bad luck caused his downfall"; "we ran into each other by pure chance"]. As we see here, the idea of “Luck” is something that is not controlled by anything or any body.. It can be good or bad things that happen to people simply by chance.  I’m certain we can all think of times in our own lives when things seem to happen by chance. Maybe there are times when everything seems to go our way (good luck) or times when everything seems to fall apart on us (bad luck). Have you ever had a day when everything seems to be going wrong?— Perhaps you’ve said or heard people say, “It’s just one of those days”. There is no doubt that certain things do indeed seem to happen by chance, therefore, one could certainly see why some people might believe in “luck”.

The fact of the matter is.. As Christians there is no place to believe in our lives being affected by “Chance” or “Luck”. To say that our lives simply revolve around chance (good or bad luck) is to say God doesn’t have control over what happens to us and of course that is unscriptural. Consider these passages:

As we can see from those passages, God is sovereign over all. Now, If God is sovereign over all then how could we as Christians believe in luck affecting our lives?  For that matter, when we give our lives to Christ we become His… period.. He becomes Lord of our lives and thus He will allow or not allow certain things to happen in our lives according to His will and what’s going on in our lives... Perhaps one of the best examples would be Job. He was a devout servant of God, who was also very blessed financially. Then, within a matter of days, he seemed to be struck with the worse luck of all… He lost his children, his livestock and basically just everything he had. Now, was all this simply the worse case of bad luck ever recorded? Well, when we read the Book of Job we discover that Satan had gone before God and accused Job of only following God because he had been so blessed.. So as a result, God allowed Satan to test Job, which brought all this upon Job. In the end, God had restored everything and more to Job. But the point is, nothing had to do with luck, good or bad, but rather, it was all spiritual matters. Nothing that happened to Job was by chance it was all by divine decree.

We need to also understand that there are spiritual laws and principles that are always in play. Let me explain-- God has setup cause and effect. For example: God say’s--Do not Steal.. Now if we steal something then the effects would be getting into trouble.. right? On the other hand, if we don’t steal, then we wont get in trouble for it. This is simple enough to understand, however, there can be certain effects that might vary within a specific cause. In other words, we could do one certain thing but have different effects each time..  For example, let’s I’m driving in my car and God’s Word said never make a left on Main Street. So one day I decide to make a left on Main St. and as a result I end up hitting another car. Now let’s say another person makes a left on Main and as a result they might get a flat tire.. Another person makes a left and their car engine blows a gasket..  You see… In this example everyone did the same thing but the effects were different.  It’s important to understand that in God’s cause and effects certain laws are in affect… In other words, God has setup parameters within certain situations. Perhaps the best example would be Job again. Consider this passage from the book of Job--- [this is when Satan came to accuse Job before God the first time and God gives him permission to test Job]:  Job 1:12 “And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.””)

As we can see, Satan could do whatever against Job’s possessions but he was not allowed to touch Job personally.. But notice, God didn’t say to Satan, you can kill 10 sheep and 12 oxen and it must be done this or that way.. Rather God set limits and within those limits Satan was allowed to choose.  My point is….  Even though some people might do the same thing, there may be different outcomes as a result. It’s all within the spiritual parameters that God has put in place.

Then of course there are simply levels of effects.. For example, if I steal a candy bar I may get in trouble but not nearly as much trouble if I steal a car or rob a bank. Even though both causes were stealing, the effects will be extremely different. But this is common sense of course..  We must remember though, stealing is stealing in the eyes of God.. So no matter what a person steals it would still be a sin in the eyes of God. The point here is simply that there are levels of effects concerning a certain situation. We can see in the Old Testament when Israel was backsliding and sinning that God would work on them and try to get them to see their error and repent. The more they continued in the same sin the stronger God dealt with them taking it up a notch every time. (ref the books of Kings). This is the same way God works with people today.  But again, whatever happens to His people had nothing to do with pure change or luck..

There are just so many examples I could give concerning spiritual laws, spiritual principles and spiritual parameters and how they affect our lives. Consider the effects of allowing sin into our lives that can have a domino effect, which could create other problems not even, related to the sin we committed. Or how about spiritual warfare? I would encourage you to into spiritual warfare, which is another subject that gets way involved in itself and would take too long to cover for this question.. Nevertheless, my point in all this is simply to say that there is no such thing as bad luck or good luck. There are spiritual laws in place and that affect our lives.

Now having said that, I do think I need to cover one last thing..  I believe there are some things that can simply be by chance or skill and have nothing to do with spiritual laws or principle. I know that seems to contradict what I just said, but let me explain.. I do not believe that if I get together with some friends to play a game of Hearts that the winner is based on divine spiritual law. In other words, if me and my friends are playing a game of hearts, I think the winner will be based on how the cards fall and/or the persons skills.. I do not believe God divinely determines the winner every time we sit down to play a game. He definitely knows who will win because He is “all knowing”, but I do not think there are spirituals laws and parameters in place to determine the outcome of the game. It’s simply just my friends and I enjoying each other’s company and a game of Hearts. Now, I suppose one might say it’s all in the “luck” of the cards and I suppose by definition that is “luck”, BUT that isn’t significant.. In other words, it plays no role in life changing matters. So if someone wants to call a card game luck then fine, but we cannot build an entire theological principle called “luck” based on some insignificant things that have no major meaning. For that matter, I do believe in certain situations there actually could be spiritual involvement to a game of card, that is-- if the game had significance. For example: If someone has a gambling problem and they’re out gambling their life away in poker games then there is sin and that will open the door for spiritual laws to come into play. It allows Satan to do his thing within the set parameters of that sin. Furthermore, I believe God would actually intervene in a card game if it served a purpose. For example, lets say someone had an issue of cheating or is a sore loser. God might cause the game to go a certain way just for the purpose of working on that person’s pride or whatever issues, but again, only if it’s serving a purpose. So even a simple game of cards could fall into spiritual parameters depending on the situation.. But again, if it’s a simple game for fun and nothing more is involved, then no I do not believe there’s any divine intervention.

 In closing,

You are absolutely correct in saying that Jesus did not believe or teach the idea of “bad luck”. Quite the opposite.. Jesus said all that took place and all He did was according to His Father’s will. Ref Matt 11:27, Matt. 26:39 & 53,  John 8:38 – John 10:17 &18 & 37  and John 18:11 – these are just a few examples our of many that shows Jesus taught all was in accordance to the Father’s will..  nothing had to do with chance or luck.

AS for your question “What would God say about luck” I think His Word makes it clear that we need not to rely on luck but rather to rely on Him and stand on His word and apply His principles and guideline and laws in our lives. We must seek Him out and look for His will in all things.. 

 I hope this has helped you…and again I would encourage you to also read more on the cause and effects of sin and also how spiritual warfare can effect things..  Feel free to write us back if you have any questions or thoughts..

May God’s guidance and wisdom be upon you always..

In CHRIST,  TRM