I personally never thought Luke used the Force in Episode IV
Luke used the force to aim at the Death Star exhaust port (Ben told him “use the force, Luke” and then he turned off his targeting computer).
Yeah well I thought he just basically relied on his instincts, just like Anakin in Episode I, not used the force to literally aim the torpedo etc.
Well, Ben does tell Luke to “act on instinct” when he’s doing the lightsaber/remote training. But I always interpreted that as a technique to quiet negative thoughts and tap into the Force.