Superstitious or Spiritual

Depending on where you were raised or how you were raised you may have some superstitions. At the very least you know someone who has superstitions. Many of us have been walking with a friend and split a pole and that friend or maybe you walked all the way back around that pole because “splitting poles is bad luck”. Remember, step on a crack break your mother’s back? And don’t you dare walk under a ladder or break a mirror. Superstitions are ridiculous to some and logical to others. Amazingly, even believers may have superstitions: athletes wear the same socks that they won a championship, or some don’t cut their hair. As believers we must understand that you cannot be both superstitious and spiritual. Being superstitious means, you don’t trust God. Superstitions are typically rooted in fear and some even witchcraft. Believers should not believe in objects or belief systems other than the power and Sovereignty of the Lord. Doing so is unwise and detestable.

Types of Superstitions
Astrology – the belief that the sun, moon, or stars control our lives and/or determine our
personalities. Deuteronomy 4: 19 states, “And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.”

Witchcraft/sorcery – the practice of conjuring spells, or calling on the dead or fortune telling. Note that this is dangerous and opens the person up to demon infiltration. Deuteronomy 18:10-12 warns against such things, “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.”

Idolatry – erecting statues for the purpose of worship of people, things, or animals. When this is done the person puts something or someone else on the throne instead of the Lord. Now, don’t be confused, you can practice idolatry without actually building a statue. Your car that you wash or wipe down daily can be a form of idolatry. Your child that you love above even the Lord can be a form of idolatry. The love of self (vanity) can be a form of idolatry. Anything that has taken the place that the Lord should have is idolatry. The Bible warns us that we should, “have no other Gods before Him” (Exodus 20:3) and that we should not carve images in the form of any figure, male or female, animal, bird, or fish to worship for this is corrupt behavior (Deuteronomy 4:15- 18).

Let us not be like the world depending on luck or allowing superstitions to rule us. Instead trust in the Lord instead of man. Wish a person Godspeed instead of good luck because divine protection and provision is better than the luck of the Irish and any astrology prediction any day.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father thank You for daily divine protection and provision. You are with us even when we forget to ask. Forgive us for getting caught up in astrology, idolatry, and sometimes sorcery. Thank You for Your Word that is clear about what You think about these things. And thank You for Jesus the Christ, our intercessor who died on the cross for all our sins, even the sins that show we don’t fully trust You. Forgive us Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
By Sis. Patricia Towns