One of the basic believes of every Christian is and should be that God is in control of everything on earth and in heaven. God is in control of both good and evil. Our consistent failure to live up to this believe, has allowed the devil to create for us man made gods such as “luck” and “coincidence”. Every good thing that happen in our lives, we give credit to our man made god called good luck and everything bad we attribute it to another god called bad luck. When we find ourselves at the right time in the right place, we attribute that to another of our gods called coincidence.
This thought process or this behavior of ours does not make sense. On the other hand, we as Christians believe that God is in control but we still credit everything to our man made gods. We simply don’t know where we stand. I have seen a lot of things happen in my life good and bad that I failed to attribute to the one true God. What is worse with me was that, I attributed everything not only to good luck, bad luck or coincidence but, I was also attributing it to another man made gods called ancestors.
Another thing is to refuse to accept that even our own true God can allow evil to take place in our lives. We believe that God is so good that he can never allow any harm to come to us. If something evil happen to us, it must be the devil, it cannot be God. Well, I don’t think Job will agree with you.
Job 2:10 (ESVST)
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Sometimes evil things happen to us as a punishment from God.
Hebrews 12:5-6 (NLTse)
And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord ’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
We need to start to accept and believe that evil things will not happen to us unless God allows it or causes it. What we need to do instead is find out what God is trying to teach or tell us by the evil event that has happened. I see Christians buying guns in the name of defending their families against crime. This act indicates total distrust in God. What you are saying by buying a gun is that, God cannot protect you, God is not in control and that even if God has decided that on that day, your family will be wiped out by criminals, you can stop that from happening. You can stop the will of God from taking place. That is what buying a gun means.
We must start to rebook at how we look at events that happen on our lives. If we believe that God is in control, then we need to start to accept that both good and evil can come from God according to his will and nothing will happen to us unless God has allowed it or has caused it. We need to believe that for a Christian, everything happens for our own good:
Romans 8:28 (NLTse)
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
If we believe this, then clearly we have to forsake our man made gods like ancestors, luck and coincidence. We need to accept that there is no such thing as luck and coincidence but there is only the will of God.
Once you stop believing in luck and coincidence and start to believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, then you will start to see how much God blesses you everyday. You will see how much God has answered and continues to answer you prayers. God blesses us everyday but instead of giving thanks and glorifying him, we give thanks and glorify our a made gods, luck and coincidence. If we don’t credit our man made gods, we credit ourselves by saying it was our own hard work. So, we are willing to credit all other gods and even ourselves but, refuse to credit the one true God who we say ironically that he is in control.
My dear brothers, the devil is blinding us from recognizing the blessings that God gives to us on a daily basis and because of this we fail to give thanks to the one true God. Forsake these man made gods. Stop believing in luck, coincidence or self efforts. Start giving thanks to the one true God. It is God’s will that we must give thanks always.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESVST)
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
We know what happens if we don’t do the will of God
Matthew 7:21 (NLTse)
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord! ’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.