Isaiah 5:11-12
Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink. Who continue until night, till wine inflames them! The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts. But they do not regard the work of the LORD. Nor consider the operation of His hands.
Hard to convince someone they are in bondage and a slave to something, if they don't perceive it themselves.
Hard to get someone to understand that destruction is a part of their life and their choices, if they are dull and unaware of the prison that have given themselves to.
Hard to get someone to see the value in a new way of living, if they are under such an influence of darkness that they willingly choose to remain there.
But such is the war that takes place with sin/addiction.
Such a battle requires weapons that are not of this earth.
Weapons used for the pulling down of strongholds of thought and belief that have been built and reinforced by the kingdom of darkness.
Weapons such as love......as the group Daniel Amos sang, "Love is the master's plow, crash down those walls of doubt."
But the ultimate weapon to use on such deception is God's Holy Spirit.
Only He can totally annihilate any and every argument that rises up to counter what God is doing in the life of this individual who is in darkness.
II Corinthians 4:3-4 reads: But even if our gospel is veiled (hidden), it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should shine on them.
To me what that says is the only hope that we have is when God's Holy Spirit breaks the blindness of heart and the deafness of spiritual ears so that the message of hope can be heard by the one trapped in addiction.
I watched a news show yesterday where the topic was a new series of drugs that have been released to combat addiction/alcoholism. It was, according to the reporter, a new day in the treatment field and that millions could be set free from drugs and alcohol. While that is an encouraging statement, I wanted to ask the reporter one question. "Who is going to set these people, who are in addiction, free from themselves?" The using of drugs and alcohol is not the problem. The problem is inside. The problem is a heart problem. The problem is this broken relationship that exists between the individual who is using and Jesus Christ, the only one who can save them.
Not really a message that some like to hear.
That Jesus is the answer to the problem of addiction.
But I know that He is....
I've seen what He can do to a life that is, to some, beyond saving.
I've seen the restorative power that only He can bring to a life that has been checked off as not worth saving.
I've seen the power of the cross and the healing that only Christ can bring.
It's real.
God on you....
mb
No comments:
Post a Comment