Gong Xi Fa Cai!

With this year’s Toto lottery at $8.6m, the possibility of Fa Cai in 2021 has never been more within our reach. $8.6m. Wow. I could do a lot with $8.6m. It’s so much money! I could quit my job, live well, take care of family and have surplus to help people. How could one person or one family consume all $8.6m? I imagine with some good management, $8.6m could really go a long way, not just to bless one family, but many families. But what are the odds of winning the lottery? We would have to be really lucky to win the lottery. Anyway, Christians don’t believe in luck right? Really?

Luck is defined as “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” Success and Prosperity and Health that comes from hard work has its own benefits. There’s a sense of achievement that comes from being in control. It’s the joy of being empowered as a person - our will is fused with our understanding and our ability. We feel good. But we don’t call that luck. Luck is to come to success, not through ourselves but through means outside of ourselves.

Winning the lottery is a lucky event that has nothing to do with our hard work but chance. Or fate. A good fate. The odds were beaten. The stars were aligned. Heaven and Earth has agreed to bestow a good fortune upon me. Winning the lottery has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with something or someone beyond me. I am special, not because of who I am, but because I was fated - elected. Chosen.

The Church has never believed in “hard work” for success. Health and Wealth and Prosperity doesn’t come through our hard work. Don’t believe me, just read Genesis 12. Abraham didn’t receive his blessings because he worked hard. Don’t believe me, just read Israel’s history from Exodus to Joshua, and specifically, the book of Deuteronomy. Israel’s health, wealth and prosperity was not tied to their hard work, but to their faithfulness - their faith to live as God’s Chosen People.

Do Christians believe in Luck? Perhaps that’s not a nice way of putting it. But we do believe in being Chosen. Being elected - fated and destined to be God’s Children, not out of our hard work, or by chance, but by the will of God (John 1:12-13).

You and I might not have won the Toto of 2021. But we are lucky. We are fated. We have been elected. We are chosen. The Creator of the Heavens and the Earth has chosen us - to know Jesus of Nazareth, His Son - to have fellowship with Him, by His Spirit. We have been Chosen to be the ”Lucky” People who obtains success not through hard work, but through His Grace and Love. A ”Lucky” People called to bring success to many others, not because of their hard work, but by the Grace and Love of our God and Father.

As we speak blessings to our families and friends over this Chinese New Year. May the God and Father of Jesus enable you to be His Blessing to them. May He watch over you and your families; and may His Blessing overflow through you to all the families that you are connected to.