Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 Worthy Life:Temperance

Proverbs 23:19-35
V21 – “…for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty.”
 

American country music singer and song writer Brad Paisley has written a song called "Alcohol" that describes some foolish things that alcohol makes people do. Listen to some of the lyrics:
I can make anybody pretty
I can make you believe any lie
I can make you pick a fight - with somebody twice your size
I been known to cause a few break ups
I been known to cause a few births
I can make you new friends - or get you fired from work
 
In other words, alcohol can make you a fool. The number of precious lives that addictive substances have destroyed are too many to count. We see that being drunk is expressly forbidden in Scripture as it relinquishes control of our faculties to alcohol rather than to the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). This week we try to understand the need for Temperance in our daily life. Temperance means voluntary self-restraint. A life which is given to uncontrolled indulgence is a worthless life.
 
The book of Proverbs contains many wise sayings attributed to Solomon. Having lived a life of greatest wisdom and experiences, Solomon gives examples of many vices that destroy human life which should be avoided. In the today’s passage he speaks about the following vices to beware of – drinking, gluttony, disrespect towards parents, disregarding wisdom and sexual sin. Solomon clearly says that all of these will surely damage our very life and reduce us to abject poverty and a wasted life.  These are vices that have long haunted human life and many have fallen easy prey to it. It is like a slippery slope that seems pleasant and harmless at first, but will destroy the very fabric of human life and society. It alienates us from God and from those who genuinely love us and makes us a curse to others. As Christians we should stay away from such vices and devote ourselves to a life of wisdom and discernment. It is this discernment that helps us to know right from wrong and virtue from vice.

 
PRAYER
Lord, give me the wisdom and strength to say no to those things that are displeasing to you. May my life be a pleasing offering to you and a blessing to others. In Jesus name, Amen.
 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference.
- Excerpt from a prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr used during Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Rev. Thomas John, Carmel MTC, Boston
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church

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