Daily Devotional – 4/13/12 “Yea, it’s Friday the 13th, so what?”

Ok, so I know that you’ve contributed all the bad luck you’ve had this morning to today being Friday the 13th, right? Child, please! The date had nothing to do with you oversleeping, not being able to find something to wear, running late, traffic, the line at McDonalds/Starbucks, the folks at your job acting foolish and the mounds of work you’ve got to do. All of these things can happen on Monday the 16th too. It’s called life! Yea, I know it stinks sometime but what can you do? Stop using all the excuses to put blame on others for your actions. You woke up frowning because that’s the person you are. You speak harsh because that’s how you want folks to think of you. You act mean because you are mean and it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the date on the calendar. It’s just like you believing in a person who can predict the future when no one can do it with uncertainty but God. You’d rather pay someone to read your palm rather than read the bible. You’d spend all your money letting someone tell you what the future holds for you rather than trusting in God. Don’t you know the bible says in Leviticus 19:31 “Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead? I am the LORD your God.” If you should be turning to anyone about your life, it should be God because he is the one that created you, right?

We’ve become so caught up in superstitions and worldly stuff that we forget about the purpose and promise of God. Yea, you know that you won’t sit your purse on the floor because “they” say you’ll be broke, when you know good and well that you barely had change in the bottom anyway; you’re already broke. You almost kill yourself trying to turn around after seeing a black cat cross your path because somebody told you that you’d have bad luck if you didn’t but you knew that tire needed air on last night so when you went out this morning and it was on flat, it wasn’t the cat’s fault. You will slap fire from your child from sweeping across your feet with the broom because “they” said, again it was bad luck or some have even said you won’t get married but aren’t you already married? Or, breaking a mirror will give you seven (7) years of bad luck. Haven’t you realized that things only have power when you give it to them? You put all your power in the fear of superstitions when they can’t really harm you. I know that grandma told you about these superstitions, so you’ve held on to them but baby it’s time you give that stuff up. 1 Timothy 4:7 says, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” Superstition is defined as an irrational, but usually deep-seated belief in the magical effects of a specific action or ritual, especially in the likelihood that good or bad luck will result from performing it. In other words it’s idolizing.

When you idolize things, your focus are on those things and it takes your focus from God and when your focus is not on God, you are easily devoured by the devil. It’s like me asking you to stand on a small box while staring ahead on one object. As long as you stare at this particular object, you are focused on just it and it allows you to stand on that small box that is under your feet but as soon as I call your name or stand beside you and you look my way, you lose your focus and fall off of the box. Why, because you lost your focus point. Well, it’s the same way with God. See, God is your focus point and if you keep your eyes on him, you are able to stand on this small box (the world) while you make your way to the end goal, Heaven. As long as you stay focused on God, you’ll be able to balance yourself from attacks of the enemy, from folks pulling on you trying to pull you down; from the mean things evil folks are throwing at you and those who occasionally walk in your line of sight. When you have your eyes focus on God, all the things folks mean for your bad will bounce off of you. Yea, you may wobble and you may even sometimes fall but you’re able to stand back on your box and realign your focus because unlike the letters on that chart you have to read at the eye doctor, God won’t get smaller the more you look at him but the closer you get the bigger he becomes. Jesus said, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me (John 12:44).” Just because the car didn’t start this morning, the coffee wasn’t good when you got it, your heel broke while walking into the job, they wouldn’t give you an extension on your bill and your account went into the negative a day before payday; it’s not bad luck it’s just life. Things, bad and good, happen every day because that’s a part of life. It has nothing to do with Friday the 13th, you not eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day, not paying your tithes on Sunday or you not saying your prayers but these things happen because it was promised. In Genesis 3:17, God said it to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life,” and I’m sure you know this verse by hard but I’ll share it again, “Man born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble, Job 14:1.”

So, please stop thinking that you have a dark cloud of thunder and rain following you around when bad luck comes. It’s just your time to go through your storm but know that just like the storm started, it’ll end. Just hold on through the bad luck, the no luck, the storm and through the rain. You’ll soon see the sun but you’ll always have God on your side pulling you through. Ephesians 1:11 says, “Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” Enough said!