A Long Island man’s faith in God has been restored after he prayed for his mother to win the lottery and, the next day, she did.
Sal Bentivegna jokingly issued a prayer for his mother, Gloria, to win the lottery after she lost money playing slots in Atlantic City.
“He said ‘I’ll tell you what Ma, if there’s a God or Jesus up there, I’m asking him, please let my mother win,'” Gloria Bentivegna said.
The next day, Gloria Bentivegna attended a charity benefit at a local Lutheran church and bought several unscratched lottery tickets. One of them was a $1 million winner.
Now the single mother on disability will receive $33,000 a year after taxes for the next 20 years – a miracle enough to revive her son’s spirituality.
“I sat back and thought about it and realized the odds against this are astronomical,” Sal Bentivegna told the New York Post. “I can’t shrug off that Jesus had a hand in it. No pun intended. It was a Godsend.”
This story reminds me of a chat I had with a friend who is the lead pastor of a church associated with the SBC. He said if someone in the church won the lottery and then tried to tithe 10% of his or her winnings, the church could not accept those funds because it wouldn’t be moral. To be honest, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with gambling. If a person earns an income and gives to God and to Caesar what is theirs, then why is it immoral for one to spend their earned income on what they wish, whether it be gambling, season tickets, luxury cars, or bacon?