The 'Christian' habit of gambling on God
To any gambler, life is about chance. To many Christians, their faith and their salvation are tied to a “game of chance” as well.
To the gambler, fate offers a lifetime of chances and grants the gambler special abilities to control them. Although the very meaning of the word “chance” implies lack or loss of control, the gambler believes he or she is a member of an exclusive class of people to whom this does not apply.
Now, what “game of chance” attitude could possibly overwhelm unthinking Christians about faith and salvation? It is this. Christianity is about faith in its Founder, Jesus Christ. However, many people do not realize that much of today’s attitude in the Church is based on the very same “game of chance” that seduces and overthrows the chronic secular gambler.
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When it comes to obedience, submission, and compliance with the Lord’s will, some Christians see God as a slot machine or game table that can be outmaneuvered. They behave and respond to God as they have the option to risk control of the costs, coins, or cash in order to bet on his will.
Much of what the modern believer today holds to about the faith of Jesus Christ is very similar to the faith that drives the gambler’s soul. Think about how many times you may have said in your own heart, “I just have to do this, and I’ll just repent for it later.” This reveals something of the gambling spirit lodged within your soul. When you take chances with no more logic or forethought than that God owes it to you, the same spirit that seduces the gambler to trust Lady Luck is tempting you.
When what God has written and bound Himself to has no effect on what you desire and pursue, it is a sign of the gambler’s spirit at work in you.
Each time you conclude that salvation is a matter of how you decide to negotiate or navigate it in a given situation, you are taking as great a chance with your eternal redemption as the gambler takes with his or her livelihood.
The Christian’s gambler’s attitudes and beliefs surface somewhat like this:
1. God said all that I had to do was ___________.
2. The Lord has to honor His Word about ___________.
3. I will just do ___________ and let the Lord work it out.
4. I don’t believe that a loving God would (or should) ___________.
5. In this situation, if I were God, I would ___________.
6. I am a parent, and I would not do ___________ to my children. God is better than me, so He also should not.
7. All I have to do after this is to repent, and I know the Lord will forgive me ___________.
All of these comments breed from a gamer’s heart. Willfully, Christians every day ignore the Apostle Paul’s words: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
Many Christians are just as reckless about their blood-bought faith in Jesus Christ as the betting gambler is about his or her uncertain riches and games of chance.
Many believers even delight in their ongoing games of chance with the Lord. Constantly, they spin luck’s roulette to excuse (or superficially shield) themselves from God’s immutable truths and inviolable righteousness. Regularly, they create and wage godless bets on His character, words, grace and mercy. With something akin to the roll of a dice, they presume upon His forgiveness so that they can commit some offense that they are unwilling to keep themselves from doing.
If you contend that the Lord is more responsible and duty-bound to you than you are to Him and believe that because of this, He must work out your deliberate mistakes, you are risking the biggest gamble of all.
Is your faith in Lady Luck or in the Father God and His Savior Jesus Christ? Search your heart and motives to discover the basis of your faith. Does your faith indeed rest on God’s eternal word as manifested by Jesus Christ in Him, or is it a ‘knock-off’ of the world’s gambling system that was religionized for our deception?
Dr. Paula A. Price is a speaker, author, talk show host, inventor, educator, executive coach, and minister known for empowering her audiences to “think differently and live powerfully. Dr. Price currently manages her own consulting firm and assessment company, is the author of over 50 books and manuals, including The Prophet’s Dictionary, serves as the president of Price University, the host of her own television program, Taking IT on with Paula Price and oversees The Congregation of the Mighty in Bixby, Oklahoma.
Dr. Price has a D.Min. and a Ph.D. in Religious Education from Word of Truth Seminary in Alabama. She is also a wife, mother of three daughters, and grandmother of two.
To learn more, visit www.drpaulaaprice.com.
