Thursday, February 23, 2012

False happiness


2/23/2012
Proverbs 31:7- “Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”

Interpretation: King Lemuel’s mother is telling him to avoid drunkenness and to leave the drinks for people who are perishing and in anguish. This verse is interesting because it hits the nail on the head of why people decide to drink in the first place. When my brother and I were young, we took a trip into Boston with our parents to do something fun for the day. I remember that was our first exposure to homelessness. My brother was so upset and moved by what he saw as, even at his young age, an injustice in the world. I wanted to give them money but my mother came up with the idea to go into Boston the following weekend, and pass out sandwiches in snack bags to different people we came across. What I didn’t understand until I was older was that we were avoiding giving them money with the presumption that they were going to go and spend their money on alcohol. People drink to forget their poverty. People drink to forget that they are miserable and empty and incomplete. It is crazy how the enemy has the world running in circles, drinking to forget their poverty, and staying poor because of drinking. Drinking to forget misery, but staying miserable because of getting drunk. When I was a young teenager and began to drink myself I developed a hardened heart towards those who refused to give money to the homeless based on the assumption they would just blow it on alcohol. It was as if I almost knew that if the money stayed in my own pocket it was definitely getting spent on alcohol, and so I gave those who had nothing the benefit of the doubt. I now see that my mother had her heart right. Give people what they need as to not enable deceitful hearts. But now I know something even deeper that people need, beyond food, water and shelter. I am done with this circle the devil has my friends trapped in, ruining their lives without even realizing. They are being kept hopeless at worst, and mediocre at best. It’s as if they know that drinking is not the answer to their problems, yet they remain ignorant to all of the problems that it causes that they wouldn’t have had to drink to forget, had they decided to remain sober in the first place. Sin is enticing, deceitful, and its wages are death. And I am abhorred and saddened by the control it has over the lives of my dearest friends.  

Application: I will write out a list of my friends and family members who struggle with alcohol issues and wake up ½ hour early tomorrow to begin my morning by praying for God to open their hearts, minds, and eyes to the destructive way their living their lives + to draw them closer to Him + His healing love.

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