2 Cents

But if we truly understand the way the world has been created and is ruled by God we would never say "good luck" at all.

You might be thinking to yourself that this is extremely trivial and insignificant in the large scope of actions we need to correct to become more godly. However God-centered living means we seek to glorify God with every single word that comes out of our mouths. I remember being in undergraduate college at UK and one of my friends called me out on this. I was so surprised that he'd question such a seemingly small statement I had made. After all, everyone else says it right?

However there were two things I didn't realize at that time:

First, it's hardly consistent, holy, or virtuous to let God pervade every area of your life except for the small, insignificant parts. God wants every inch of you turned over to him and renewed so that he can show his glory forth in you. God is not a God that stops just short of perfection because it doesn't matter in the end. He completes every job in its entirety - to the last, minute details.

Second, every word that comes out of your mouth communicates something you believe about God - even the seemingly insignificant ones. Therefore we should seek to make every single word that comes out of our mouths God-centered.

So why is it not God-centered to tell someone "good luck"? Sounds like a nice thing to say doesn't it?

When we say "good luck" we're first of all communicating that there is such a thing as luck at all, when in actuality the principle can be found nowhere in Scripture. God is the creator and rule of the world. Nothing happens outside of either his causative or permissive will. That means that every single thing that happens is either caused or allowed by God. Nothing slips under his radar.

Also when we say "good luck" we're communicating that some outside force can influence what you're about to do, when in actuality God has set the world up in such a way that (most of the time) you reap what you sow. This means if you study hard for your test you'll generally do well. If you prepare well for your interview you will generally do well. *** Dating might be a different story here (LOL). But when we say "good luck" what we really are communicating is that there is no rhyme or reason to why people succeed in their endeavors... it's just up to some cosmic force called "luck" that is apparently pretty random.

Finally principle of good or bad luck sounds extremely close to the philosophy of karma found in Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Karma is the idea that your deeds will revisit you. So as a general principle if you do good, good things will happen to you (good karma) and if you do bad things, bad will happen to you (bad karma). Therefore karma takes out the role of God as our ruler and replaces it with the self. It has no explanation for the fact that sometimes bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Jesus suffered and died on the cross. Bad karma perhaps? Not in the least. It was the will of God.

So next time, instead of telling someone "good luck," it would be more God-centered to tell them, "God will be with you," or even, "I hope you do well."