Quotes about Luck
Has God decreed all things that come to pass? Then there is nothing that falls out by chance, nor are we to ascribe what we meet with either to good or ill luck and fortune. There are many events in the world which men look upon as mere accidents, yet all these come by the counsel and appointment of Heaven.
There is no such thing as luck” or “accident”… We must resist limiting God’s sovereignty in the face of suffering. The comfort of God…is not His empathy with us as someone who feels the tragedy of evil but is helpless in it. Nor does the comfort of God reside in His actions as a “fourth-quarter quarterback,” who is brought in after things have fallen apart to save the day just before the whistle blows. There is no comfort in suffering if God is not sovereign over it. To pare down God’s sovereignty is to render suffering a triumph of evil and sin against the limited will and power of God.
“Luck!” There is no such thing in our world, none in nature, none in human affairs. Luck means that an event has no cause at all. It is a bad word – a heathen term. Drop it from your vocabulary! Trust nothing to luck, and expect nothing from it. Avoid all practical dependence upon it or its kindred words: fate, chance, fortune. Never forget your dependence upon God. He can exalt you to prosperity – or sink you into the lowest depth of adversity. He can make everything to which you set your hand to prosper – or to fail. Devoutly acknowledge this. Abhor the atheism that shuts God out of His own world!
Belief in luck and belief in a sovereign God are mutually exclusive, for if an omniscient, omnipotent Creator God exists then luck makes no sense. Things don’t “just happen.” Nothing – including the secondary causes operative in the universe (the “laws” of nature and human choices) – happens outside of God’s will and disposition. So belief in God not only dispels any idea of luck, it also rejects any idea of chance as a determining factor in natural events or people’s destiny… Any trust in luck rather than God is therefore a form of idolatry (Rex Rogers).
America’s New Love Affair with Gambling, CRJ, January-March 1998, p. 21, www.equip.org. Used by Permission.
Nothing whatever, whether great or small, can happen to a believer, without God’s ordering and permission. There is no such thing as “chance,” “luck” or “accident” in the Christian’s journey through this world. All is arranged and appointed by God. And all things are “working together” for the believer’s good.
I am glad there is no such thing as “chance,” that nothing is left to itself, but that Christ everywhere has sway.
Depend upon it, however, let men rebel against this truth as they will, that God has determined the end from the beginning. He has left no screw loose in the machine, He has left nothing to chance or accident.
God is working behind the scenes to accomplish His purpose. Nothing occurs in our lives by randomness or chance. Seemingly small and insignificant decisions serve His purpose for our lives. We think nothing of day-to-day encounters, so-called accidents of history, but God uses ordinary events to advance His purpose.
The universal sovereign rule of God with a view towards the incarnation which God preserves and governs all His creatures and their actions to the effect where our lives are not ruled by chance or fate, but according to the purposes of God.
That there are no random events with respect to God. To us it is true that time and chance influence all things. Things come to pass in unseen ways, and by unknown means, but with respect to God it is not so. Nothing can happen either outside His knowledge or intention, for it is His decree that gives being to all events. The things that are, would never be if He had not intended them.