If we pray about our weaknesses, God will help us.
My pastor discussed the concept of good out-of-place, in his Sunday sermon. He pointed out that most of the evil in the world begins with good intentions. He used wine as an example. Is wine bad? Is it evil? The concept had my mind spinning.
Jesus turned water into wine in the wedding at Cana. He drank wine at the Last Supper. Would Jesus drink something evil? Of course not. Wine in itself isn’t evil, but what humanity chooses to do with it can be. Is it wrong to drink a glass of wine with dinner? Jesus did, so I’m guessing, no. Is it wrong to drink a glass of wine to calm ourselves after a stressful day? Possibly, is drinking wine the only way we can tame our emotions? Could we take a walk or meditate or pray? Could we phone a friend?
I think the evil comes when we use it as a crutch. When we look to it for peace instead of to God. But, humanity struggles with that concept across the spectrum, don’t we? Our desire for more things, from cars, to clothes, to jewelry, to bigger houses, is another example of a crutch. The quest for more stuff keeps us prisoner. We look to it for comfort. It’s truly not much different from addiction.
Our desire to worship is ingrained and because of that, we have to be careful. We have an enemy that will exploit that need, if we allow it. One glass of wine after work becomes three. We can find ourselves unable to get through a day without a drink. Wine has become our idol.
Our obsession for that new car, makes the payments so high that we constantly argue with our spouse over finances. Our marriages get into trouble. Our family suffers. Who loves to see the family fail?
Perhaps we need to be very vigilant about keeping our eyes on God and asking ourselves some soul-searching questions regularly. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a glass of wine if you enjoy it, but if you are drinking to escape your current reality, that’s another matter altogether. I certainly don’t think there’s anything wrong with buying new clothes or a new car. But, if you can’t afford it or if you are buying things you don’t need because they will make you feel complete somehow, you may have stumbled.
If anything we do hurts our marriages or family relationships, that’s always a big red flag. I think it comes down to the fact that we are all individuals, “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Because we are all unique, we have different strengths and weaknesses.
We can’t just ignore our weaknesses. We can pray for God to point them out to us so that we are aware of them, so that we can ask Him to help us deal with them. If alcoholism runs in our family, perhaps we shouldn’t drink. If our spending is out of control, perhaps we should get some debt counseling and cut up our credit cards. If compulsive gambling is an issue for us, that vacation to Las Vegas may be ill-advised.
God wants us to be the best we can be. How else can we serve Him to our best ability? To be the best, we have to work on breaking any bad habits and conquer any weaknesses that may be working against us. We can’t conquer them if we don’t know or can’t admit what they are.
If we keep our eyes focused on God and pray for strength and guidance, and lean into Jesus, he will help. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
What do you need to pray about today? He’s always listening.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂