Luck is John Doe for God

In response to challenges that answers to prayer are nothing more than coincidence, Bishop William Temple said, “When I pray coincidences happen, when I don’t they don’t.” I certainly agree with the first half of Temple’s response—coincidences definitely happen more frequently when I pray.

But sometimes they also happen when I don’t pray.

Do you think God ever answers prayers that we don’t even think to pray? Do you think that sometimes our luck or good fortune might actually be GOD pressing closer to us?

Pastor Erwin McManus once said that “Luck is John Doe for God.” I love that. What if luck is God’s attempt to interact with people who don’t even realize that they are being pursued by God? What if luck is actually an interruption from heaven?

Let’s try something. Every time we experience unexpected good fortune, let’s pause to see if God might be behind it. Let’s let lucky coincidences become opportunities to center our focus on God—perhaps He is trying to get our attention in some way.

Maybe the coincidences are indeed just luck. Maybe there isn’t anything sovereign or divine attached to them. But then again maybe there is. Maybe those things are a fulfillment of James 1:17 that 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.”