Does All Good Fortune Come From God? Is There Such A Thing As Luck?

Q: Does all good fortune come from God, or is there such a thing as luck or happy accidents?

A: The Bible says in James that every good and perfect gift comes from God, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shadow of turning. In other words, He is immutable. He doesn't change. He's constant. So that's a wonderful truth. Every good and perfect gift comes from God the Father.

In appearance, there are things that happen just by happenstance, and that's how God expects us to live in the real world. Somebody could make the case that if I start flipping a coin, whether it lands heads or tails is due to the physics of the whole situation. Someone else could say that it's directly guided by God. I don't know that the two necessarily contradict, but it's not wrong to say it's luck. It's just how it happens out. We're not trying to assign some power to luck; we're just describing that there are things that seem to happen randomly in the real world.

We believe in the sovereign guiding hand of God, and we also believe in the physical properties of the universe. Those physical properties are not immutable or unchangeable. God can change them or perform miracles anytime He pleases, of course, but they generally work. Yet, in our normal everyday experience, there are things that seem like luck. One other thing to consider is that something someone thought was very lucky could end up being tragic for their life. For example, winning a lottery ticket worth millions of dollars might seem fortunate, but that money could end up ruining your life. So, with that in mind, yes, I think it's okay for us to speak in terms of luck and fortune as they appear to us in everyday life.