Are you able to drink in moderation?
I have a glass of wine most nights with a meal and can certainly stick to just one. I believe it is a good thing in moderation. Wine is civilised and makes the simplest meal an occasion.
But i do know people that have a huge capacity and no 'off switch'.
I was listening to a programme about the Temperance Movement and it sounds fascinating. It must have been a good thing? Alcohol as an addiction ruins many lives.
When alcohol was my idol for half of my life, I could not drink in moderation ( I don't at all today ). I was surrounded by those (some by choice and some not by choice) who promoted the debauchery of excessive indulgence and dissipation. I did therapy, rehab, tried to stop on my own. I could stop for a few days. However, this inaction was just a smoke screen and no one could see the anxiety and deep desire to return to it.
But when Jesus set me free, I was free from it all, the external and internal. Sometimes I walk down the grocery store isle and pass by the sparkling wine and glimmering aged whiskey, it'll whisper nice things to me, so I've got to give it a certain hand gesture like the "L" for loser, and keep on walkin'.
I do understand that drunkeness is the sin. But I will not touch it. I've seen the generational damages and wounds it has had on my family, so no!
These so ring a bell to me:
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
32 In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
34 You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.[
h]
35 “They struck me,” you will say,[
i] “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.”
