When I first saw the blogging calendar for this month and discovered that I was scheduled to blog on Friday, the 13th, my initial gut reaction was, “Ewww.” I’m not even sure why I had that sudden response as I’m not one who’s typically bothered by “unlucky” days. I don’t believe in carrying a lucky rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover to ward off bad luck juju in case a black cat crosses my path. I don’t read my horoscope and I have never been one to give in to that whole seven-years-bad-luck thinking.
Which is why I was surprised at my initial gut reaction to my assigned Friday, the 13th day. Perhaps my reaction was some sort of residual fear leftover from my childhood and my life B.C. – before Christ.
I was raised primarily by a single working mother and it seemed for years that the only “luck” our family experienced was perpetual bad luck. I grew up in a home where the name of Jesus Christ was used most frequently as a curse word rather than a praise word. Disaster was only one phone call away and our family motto seemed to be “if something good happens, it must be a mistake.”
I have known people who seem to invite bad luck wherever they go. They are the type who have a never-ending negative attitude about everything and have a tendency to speak self-destructive words over their life. With all that negativity around them they’re continually cloaked in that aura of, “Oh woe is me – the sky is falling.”
Years of this negative thinking can be difficult to overcome. Once we say “yes” to Jesus though, undoing all of those negative mindsets needs to become a deliberate action on our part. Reading God’s Word regularly will help us to restructure those damaging attitudes and allow us to replace them with uplifting words — if we meditate on the Scriptures.
Philippians 4:8 tells us: Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about.
The enemy would like nothing more than to get us all stirred up, afraid to leave our house because today is Friday, the 13th — which is silly. If we call ourselves believers in Christ, regardless of whether we feel lucky or not, Jesus is better than a four-leaf clover or a lucky rabbit’s foot any day, even on Friday, the 13th.
What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true. Job 3:25 (NLT)
Blessings in Christ,
Kathy K.
I’m so happy that you addressed this (so well) Kathy. I am always surprised by the snares of superstition that plague the Church of Christ. One would think that we know better, still we continue to be enslaved by this kind of B.C. thinking!
May we press on to the freedom Christ bought for His children with His blood!