CONCERT OF PRAYER
Pray Week 669
“I Need a Drink”

Jer 2:8-13 (NIV)… “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
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I am a high functioning alcoholic. Alcoholism runs in my family. It is in my genetic makeup and I am physiologically disposed to it. I didn’t drink and drive. I didn’t drink on the job. I was an upstanding, church-going, regular pillar of the community that drank alcohol with the purpose of ‘getting numb’ every night.

After a particularly stressful day on the job, I recall saying to myself as I fought the traffic home: ‘I need a drink’. It was at that very moment that the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and brought me to the realization that I was just like my father and his father before him. I realized that I was an alcoholic. It was almost as if God had spoken to me audibly in the car that day – it was so clear: ‘You do not need a drink, you need Me …you shall have no other gods before Me’. It has been 25 years since that moment following which I went home and poured every last drop of alcoholic beverage down the drain and with God’s help, I have not been drunk again.

The temptations, however still come on occasion. The enemy of our soul, the devil, is a good study of each of us and he tempts us along the lines where we are weakest. But God is faithful. He never allows the enemy to tempt us beyond what we are capable to withstand and He always provides for us the means to withstand and escape. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” – 1 Cor 10:13

Throughout time, humankind has sought numerous alternatives to that of total and complete reliance upon God. How foolish we become when we exchange the Truth of God for the lies of this world. In ancient times idols were made out of wood, stone, or precious metals and were worshipped. Today, the idolatry continues to exist but in different forms. When you need peace or strength, where you turn to first to fulfill that need, if it is not God, it is an idol, and that idol stands between you and God.

How do you deal with the pressures of life? Do you have a favorite method or habit that calms you and strengthens you? Perhaps you choose to ‘wind down’ with a few stiff drinks as I was in the habit of doing. Others find that tobacco, in its various forms, helps them through situations. Still others resort to the abuse of prescription and illegal drugs.

Secular stress management seminars teach ‘positive affirmation’ techniques where through positive self-talk you find the inner strength to deal with whatever is challenging you. You can buy special steel balls and crystals that you roll around and rub in your hand seeking to find peace and strength or perhaps you can repeatedly chant a mantra. These are all empty, broken cisterns.

Jesus calls to us to come to Him and be refreshed by the spring of living water that never runs dry and that continually gives us power and strength for living. What cisterns have you dug to quench your thirst? They are all broken, aren’t they? What little refreshment any of them may offer is only fleeting, isn’t it? Before long you are thirsty again and frustrated with the utter futility of the process. Yes, you do need a drink … from the wellspring of God’s Holy Spirit! Let the Holy Spirit show you what ‘idol’ stands between you and God and remove it by the power of the Name of Jesus.

Close in prayer, thanksgiving & rededication of your work to the glory of God