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Key Bible Verse: The Lord has made everything for his own purposes (Proverbs 16:4). Bonus Reading: Psalm 75

A recent newspaper headline read "Uniform No. 13 Rarely Gets the Call." According to the article, clubhouse managers are reluctant to assign the number 13 to athletes joining the team. It seems many of the players are afraid of "bad luck." Apparently those folks have never heard of Kurt Warner—No. 13 for the St. Louis Rams.

There are a lot of superstitions in sports. We've all seen baseball players who refuse to step on a chalk line as they walk onto the field or who turn their rally caps inside out to get more runs. We've seen players refuse to wash their uniforms when they're on a hot streak.

Maybe it's just a way of dealing with the pressures of competition. But the Bible makes it clear that there's no such thing as luck—good or bad. In every circumstance of life, God's in control. [Today's Bible passages] point this out.

Our success—in sports and in life—has nothing to do with luck. It has everything to do with how we choose to respond to God's plan for us. Winning and losing are both tools in God's hands. He uses them to develop our character and to teach us how to trust Him.

—Christin Ditchfield in Power Up!

I sometimes worry about _____, and need to turn it over to God.

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.

—Corrie ten Boom (Dutch speaker, concentration camp survivor)

Adapted from: Power Up! (1-2/01).

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Sovereign Lord, help me to grasp how inferior the finest human resources are to Your infinite wisdom and power.

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