1 Timothy 4:7: 7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
How do we make sure we aren’t buying into any of the crazy superstitions that are prevalent in the world around us? I would suggest to you first of all that we need to:
- Trust in the Sovereignty of God and not in superstition. Our faith doesn’t come in and through objects or rituals, but our faith is built on and grows in the Person of Jesus Christ. Look at Colossians 2:8 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Jesus didn’t look for earthly crutches or earthly comforts or try to control times, people, and situations, but He depended fully on His relationship with the Heavenly Father to enable Him to carry out the plan that had been determined before the world was even created. Jesus absolutely had nerves of steel because He had ultimate faith in the Sovereign plan of God. Look at this stunning story in John 19. Jesus is in Pilate’s custody. He has been beaten. The crown of thorns has been placed on his head. He is being struck in the face. Pilate still didn’t see any reason for Jesus to be charged. We read in verse four:
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” 7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered, “YOU WOULD HAVE NO POWER OVER ME IF IT WERE NOT GIVEN TO YOU FROM ABOVE.”
Wow! Jesus acknowledged right here that Pilate could only do what God would allow him to. Pilate was not controlling anything because God was never out of control. Jesus was never out of God’s plans or His hands. And neither are we. Romans 8:28 is a promise you can count on. God will cause all things to work together for our good as we love Him and as we have been called according to His purpose. See, that’s the thing. It is the purpose of God that always prevails. It is the plan of God that is completely unstoppable.
Faith in God requires a commitment to trust when we don’t feel like it, to trust when we don’t understand. Superstition seems more accessible, easier to grab on when life is tough, but it only gives us a false sense of control. We control nothing when we embrace superstition. Embracing superstition is a way to try to be in control rather than recognizing God as the one in control. Can we agree that God can truly handle running the universe? He can handle hearing everyone’s prayers at once. He can handle meeting the needs of everyone all at once. He doesn’t need us checking in with fortune tellers and the stars to make sure He is on track or performing the way we want Him to. Here’s the thing. God cannot be manipulated. He is Sovereign. Completely. Fully and forever sovereign.
- Trust King Jesus, and not karma to deal with wrong and injustice. I see a lot of Christians talking about Karma as if it is a Christian principle. There is a principle of sowing and reaping in the Bible, but it isn’t Karma.
To ascribe some kind of power or energy or authority to something called Karma isn’t biblical. Karma is one of the principles of Hinduism and Buddhism that teach that the sum of a person’s actions in previous stages of existence and in their current existence will determine their fate in later existences. Christians believe that we live once and then heaven or hell await. Hindus and Buddhists believe that what happens now will impact your future lives. That Karma will bless you or bite you in the lives to come.
I see many Christians, who aren’t necessarily into the reincarnation facet of Karma, suggest it is still a real thing that comes back to bite people or wreak havoc on people who do the wrong thing. Karma is some cosmic, impersonal force. We don’t need to wish Karma will haunt people or pray for Karma to clobber people. We can trust that a holy God will right every wrong. We can turn our enemies over to God to deal with. We don’t need to wish harm on anyone. We can trust that God will do what is right to everyone who has wronged us.
Another note about Karma. Karma is the principle that everyone gets what they deserve. We need to be be thanking God right now that Karma doesn’t exist because if we all got what we deserved, we would all be in big trouble. Not only does God, in His sovereign wisdom, deal justly with us, but He also deals with us in grace. The Bible says He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. He has taken on punishment that we deserved. He forgives us. He gets us out of messes. He restores things to us that we lost because of our own stupidity or arrogance or selfishness or self-indulgent natures. Let’s be glad that it is God and not Karma that is calling the shots in our lives.
- Live securely in the blessing of God rather than the folly of luck. Luck is “good fortune; advantage or success, considered as a result of chance.” When you wish someone luck, (like all of us have), you are essentially stating that you believe that what happens will be the result of random chance. What the Bible tells me is that God either causes everything that happens or allows it to happen.
One of the big problems with luck is that it leaves God out of the equation. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” When good things come your way, it isn’t because you are lucky. It is the blessing of God that has delivered that promotion, that special relationship, that new home.
Here’s the thing about God’s kind of blessing. It is comprehensive! You can be blessed when life is good, and you can be blessed when life is bad. Luck could never be defined that way. You are only lucky, in the world’s estimation, when everything turns out the way you want it to or the way the world would define to be positive. Listen, when bad things happen, it isn’t because you are unlucky. It is because God wants you to see how big and powerful He is. He can take the bad things we face and turn them into blessings in our lives, things we would never trade for the world.
Your life isn’t random. Your pain isn’t a cruel joke. Your suffering isn’t for nothing. Be still, and wait for the Lord. Don’t turn to superstition to try to make sense of what is happening to you or what will happen in the future. Don’t reach out to some cosmic impersonal powerless force the world calls Karma to try to get even with people that do you wrong. God has a plan to use even injustices to suit His Sovereign purposes. Trust that not only does God know what He is doing, but believe that in time, He will reveal it to you. And when He does, you will be so blessed to have been through what you have gone through, to learn what you have learned and to be elevated to the place where He is taking you.
