Friday the 13th

       In North America, today is known as a day of bad luck.  I really don’t know why and don’t care enough to find out why it started, but I was speaking with an old friend whose family comes from Europe and she said they consider it to be lucky.  She also said, “I should go out and buy lottery tickets.”  I said, “Oh really, have you won a lot that way?” to which she replied, “No, never” while she shook her head.  Well, that doesn’t sound lucky to me!

       I am the type of person that if there are two tickets to win anything and I have one, the other person is guaranteed to be the winner.  When I tell people that, they admonish me saying, “of course you never win with that negative attitude.”  Funny how they equate poor luck with a negative attitude, yet the definition of luck is: Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.  So, my own ‘negative attitude toward luck’ has nothing to do with my failure to win.

       That is why I am so glad to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  I don’t have to depend on luck to win the big one- Heaven.  It’s already determined by the choice I made to surrender fully to Him.  Luck also plays no part in my positive mental state for I now have the joy of the Lord (Ps. 5:11b), His comfort (2Cor. 1:4) and peace that passes all understanding (Php. 4:7).  Luck has no connection to the blessings of God.  Blessings by definition: God's favor and protection; a prayer asking for such favor and protection.

       While luck can be good or bad, by contrast, blessings are only good.  Since God is our Father and all genuine fathers enjoy blessing their children, then God enjoys blessing us, and He does.  We may not always see the blessings, but they are there.  Deu. 28 talks about the many blessings of God on the Abraham’s decedents if they obeyed and we are Abraham’s children. (Gal. 3:29) We are blessed because of what Christ Jesus did for us.  “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” (Rom. 4:7) 

So world, you can keep your luck

              … I’ll take blessings instead… anyday!