7 things I have learned about alcohol on the Race:
1. Alcoholism isn’t just a problem in the US. It is a problem in every. single. country. I visited. 50% of prayer requests by people we ministered to were for freedom from alcohol addiction for their family member.
2. Alcohol is a very effective dissolving agent. It dissolves families, marriages, friendships, jobs, bank accounts, and neurons but never problems.
3. Alcohol is a problem if it causes problems in any part of your life.
4. In India women who are being trafficked are forced to give their babies alcohol to make them look lifeless which supposedly motivates people to give the begging women more money.
5. Satan uses alcohol to get a stronghold in our lives. He loves it when we drink. There are specific demonic spirits associated with liquor and every time you abuse it you could unknowingly be opening the doorway for these demonic spirits to come into your life.
6. Being a missionary overseas doesn’t eliminate the ability or the desire to have a drink too many. If anything, the stress of being a missionary, missing home, living in tight quarters, and seeing desperate generations and starving children daily actually heightens the desire to drink away everything you just witnessed that day.
7. A believer who is bound by an alcohol addiction is loved by God just as much as someone who is deceived in thinking they are sinless. God doesn’t hate alcohol nor does he hate alcoholics. He hates the division alcohol causes.
I want to be vulnerable and share what inspired this blog. New Years 2016. I don’t really remember New Years. Why? Two words. 1. WINE 2. TASTING. I was in beautiful Stellenbosch, South Africa. Also known as “wine country”. My team was treated to a day full of breathtaking vineyards followed by wine tasting followed by beach followed by a delicious meal. I had adopted a strict 2 glass rule. I knew my limits. Unable to measure how much I was consuming, I over drank. I don’t remember much of the beach but I swam. I don’t remember dinner but I ate. I woke up sick. I woke up sad. I woke up regretful. I woke up as a hungover missionary. However, I also woke up to new mercies. I woke to grace but I had to choose it. I had to choose God’s grace over Satan’s condemnation. I had to receive His forgiveness and I had to forgive myself. I also had another choice to make. To go alcohol hiatus or sit with the Lord and set another boundary? A boundary that couldn’t be compromised. I truly do enjoy the taste of wine. I enjoy the taste of a good craft beer. So, in sitting with the Lord he made it clear to me that its okay to have a drink but it is not something his Spirit will ever lead me to. With that heavy on my heart I chose to have a limit of only ONE-always checking my motivation. Always remembering the stronghold alcohol used to have on me. The stronghold it has on my family. The stronghold it has on the countries I visited and the country I live in. The stronghold it has on the WORLD.
Never drinking alone.
Never drinking in secret.
Personally, I do not see anything wrong with enjoying A glass of wine or A beer but what is your motivation? Did you have a bad day? Are you mad? Are you in search of something to numb pain? Do you seek the feeling that follows 2, 3, 4, or more drinks? Do you drink because at the bottom of that glass you become more social and laid back?
Satan loves it when we drink to drink the pain away. He loves it when we choose alcohol over the comfort that is promised through our Father. When we abuse alcohol we grieve the Spirit of God. Everyday we have a choice. Will what you choose take you closer to the Father’s heart or will it grieve his heart?
1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.“
