Did God deliver me from Alcohol; knowing how bad it was why would I even sip it?
Prov 31:4 It is not for kings (Christians under the King of kings)…to drink wine…
Prov 23:31-32 Donot look on the wine…At the end it bites like a snake…
Isa 28:7 …The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, They are swallowed up by wine…They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
Addiction to alcohol is an idol by another name: Since I value or love my addiction more than I love God – because I go to it so often in preference to Him – addictions meet the basic definition of an idol, which is something or someone valued or loved more than God. Every time I indulge my addiction I’m in effect worshipping my idol, my false god.
Who is the king of the drug world? (This sub-section is from: Dial-the-Truth-Ministries)
Who claims many more lives than all the illegal drugs combined? Who costs the American people 130 billion dollars every year? Who destroys 1 in every 4 families in America? Who kills over 200,000 Americans each year? Cocaine, heroin, fentanyl? No, KING ALCOHOL!
Killer alcohol can make an otherwise, faithful man or woman forget their marriage vows. Currently, 2 out of every 3 marriages end in divorce – and 2 out of every 3 adults drink alcohol! A Miami judge recently “shocked” the news media when he stated that a WHOPPING 90% OF ALL DIVORCES WERE CAUSED BY DRINKING PROBLEMS.
You’ve heard it said, one or two drinks won’t hurt you, or an occasional drink may even be good for your health. An article in U.S. News and World Report states, “Alcohol begins to alter the functioning of virtually every organ from the moment it enters the body. . . with just a “sip” you may pull the switch that will change your metabolism and turn you into a chronic alcoholic and destroy your life.” And 1 out of every 10 alcoholics commit suicide!
The Bible says, “…at the end it bites like a snake” Do you know what a snake bite is? POISON! Did you know that alcohol is poison? Every major organ in your body is poisoned by alcohol. According to The Birmingham News (Nov. 19, 1990), “Scientific data show alcohol is THE MOST PHYSICALLY DETERIORATING drug there is. It causes more organic damage than any other drug. . .
People say, Jesus drank wine at the Last Supper with the apostles. HE DID? In Matthew, Mark and Luke where the account of the Last Supper is found, the word “wine” is never even mentioned. The Bible very carefully says they drank – “FRUIT OF THE VINE!”
The Bible speaks everywhere about addictions – it calls them the lusts of the flesh –
something or someone my fallen human nature strongly wants and wants now. The Bible
makes it clear that our basic human nature is unchangeably prone to addictions. But the Bible also provides the most sure way, in Christ, to overcome these lusts, which have the likelihood to ruin us while we’re on earth and the potential of keeping us out of Heaven.
James 1:21 …Receive with meekness (into your spirit)the engrafted word, which has
the power to save (to deliver) your souls (your wills – from captivity by your flesh).
Gal 5:16 Live in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of your human nature.
Reasoning #1 If I say yes to a drink now I expect to be able to say no later to another:
James 2:17 Faith by itself, if it does not have corresponding actions, is dead.
It was by faith in God’s words and Spirit of grace that God was able to deliver me from alcohol and free my will to say no to a drink. If my actions now, by taking a drink, no longer correspond to that liberating faith, what happens to it? It dies and I’ll be a slave.
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey…(alcohol is a gateway to many sins).
Reasoning #2 All things are lawful to me so I have the freedom to drink socially. Really?
1 Cor 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (by taking the first drink knowing that my human nature is forever hopelessly addicted to alcohol am I not inviting it to re-take control of me as it once did?).
Our flesh’s addiction to alcohol never changes. For us who have crossed the line of binge drinking in search of a buzz, just one drink is too many and a thousand are not enough.
We will never manage in modest proportions our addiction, or become a “social drinker”.
Gal 5:13 Don’t use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but by love to serve others.
Reasoning #3 I’ve never been addicted to alcohol so I’m free to drink whenever I want to:
1 Cor 8:9 Beware lest somehow this liberty of yours (to drink) becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak (who you know have an addiction to alcohol).
11-12 Because of your knowledge (that you are not addicted) shall the weak (addicted) brother perish, for whom Christ died? For when you sin this way against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ.
13 Therefore, if (Alcohol) makes my brother stumble, I will never again (drink), lest I make my brother stumble. (IfIdodrink how does it affect my witness to others?)
Unseen spirits often seed and fan addictions: These spirits know what our past addictive weaknesses are, and, that when we give in to them we can be kept from God. So, they will tempt us with thoughts to yield to our desires, until we learn how to take them captive:
2 Cor 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are…mighty in God (His living word, His controlling Spirit, prayer, praise, the fruit of our lips)…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (living as His word and Spirit in our hearts),
When we live in this place, in Christ, an urge thought from either such a spirit or our own flesh may from time to time show up, but it is easily rejected from the thought life by thinking on a more powerful word from God that was previously believed in our hearts.
Prov 29:18 Wherethere is no (continuing) revelation, (Christians) cast off restraint…
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