Very Superstitious

 

“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness” – 1 Timothy 4:7

When I was growing up, New Year’s Day was a day that I didn’t care to eat dinner.  On the first day of the year my mom would cook hog jowl, cabbage, and black eyed peas.  As a kid, I didn’t care for ANY of that!  But here in the south, hog jowl and black eyed peas are thought to bring you good luck, and cabbage to bring you money – green in your wallet.  So many people eat them on New Years Day.

We also had to be careful what we did on New Year’s Day.  You don’t want to work that day, or do laundry, or be sick, because superstition says that what you do on that day you will do all year long.

But it’s not just in the south that these New Year’s Day superstitions have become tradition.  In Spanish countries, some will eat 12 grapes at midnight – one for each month.  If the grape is sweet, then that month is predicted to be easy and pleasant.  If one is sour, then it is thought that that month will be a hard one, filled with trouble.  Some will eat donuts or Bundt cakes on New Year’s Day because their round shape is thought to bring fortune.  Others will hide a coin in a pan of rice before it’s cooked, which should bring good luck to the one who finds it.

It can be so easy to fall into these traditional superstitions and observe them.  But friends, let us not be so easy to lose our focus of who is really in charge of things.  There is no other power at work in this world that God Almighty.  He rules, He reigns.  Nothing is done without His doing it, or allowing it.  Is there any part of our lives that God is not “Almighty” in?  Is there any part where He does not control the future?  Then why do we become double minded at the thought of bringing ourselves good fortune or luck?  Why do we participate in superstitions?

In 1 Timothy 4 Paul wrote to Timothy.  He told him that ”in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons”.  He goes on to say that people will stop marrying.  We now see many who choose to live together outside the bonds of marriage.  He says that some will stop eating certain foods.  We also see many now claim to be Vegetarians, or Vegans. (Yet, God has said that all things He creates are good for us to eat as long as we eat it with thanksgiving).  Paul makes the case clearly that we are living in the times that he is speaking of, and then says, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness”.  Friends, Paul is speaking to us! Our generation! 

We are not to be superstitious people and allow satan to distract us  - not even for a single day!  If we believe in anything other than the power of God for our good fortune and our blessings, then do we truly believe in God?  Are we allowing God to be Lord of all?

I encourage you to spend this New Year’s Day superstition-free!  Instead, thank God for a New Year and all the new things He will bring your way.  Trust Him with your future, listen and obey His voice, and wait to see what God will do.  He's taken care of you so far, and He won't fail you now.  God never fails.