"Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit." -Eph 5:17-18
Part of the Lord's will for our life is to redeem our time on earth, that is to make the most out of every opportunity. (5:16) And the way we go about this is, is by purposely avoiding our fleshly inclinations. One being alcoholism, and any use of things that are meant to intoxicate us and lower our decision making abilities. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I did things I now regret because of alcoholism. Fleshly habits can be hard to break. But God's will isn't just for us to break those habits alone but to replace them with godly habits lest we fall into them again and again. The godly habit presented here is the continuous filling of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is something done by faith, the filling is God's grace on our life, and we cannot earn grace or work for it, grace is a gift. We are saved by grace through faith not by works, (2:18) similarly we are filled also by God's grace through faith. The Greek on the 2nd half of verse 18 (concerning the filling) is in the present active imperative form, which means two things; to be filled is a command not a suggestion, secondly it is continual and not a one time thing. We must continuously seek to be filled through faith, and God is faithful to do that in His grace through the Holy Spirit who already indwells us. Alcohol is a downer but the empowerment of the Spirit is a "pick me upper" if that makes any sense. God wants us to put away the things that will distract us from doing His will in our life here on earth and pick up the things (more of Him) that will enable us to soberly serve Him to the best of our abilities. So build up and cultivate a sober dependency on the Holy Spirit, and allow Him to make the best of your time here on earth!
- WHY DO YOU NEED THE SPIRIT TO EMPOWER YOU? WHAT UNHEALTHY HABITS DO YOU NEED TO REPLACE WITH GODLY HABITS?
- JESUS- "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you" (Acts 1:8)