But Jesus Is Free!

As I was stopped at a traffic light yesterday, I looked over at the local liquor store and couldn't help but notice the sign out front.  It read: 
"Wine is cheeper than therapy.  All Wine 10% off Wednesdays"
Immediately out of my mouth came:
 "But Jesus is free!" 
My GFF's would agree!  In fact, we often call our weekly meetings therapy because we always feel so much better leaving than we did arriving.  When we talk about Jesus and learn what He is doing in each other's lives we are encouraged and find healing from our daily stress and burdens.  

Friend, if you are struggling to find relief from stress and you are seeking answers to your problems by using alcohol as your therapy I want to pray for you right now.  I have seen the effects of alcohol on an individual and a whole family and it's just heartbreaking.  I want you to know that although your relief comes within minutes of that first drink or two, it as easily wears off leaving you feeling just as miserable, if not more, as when you began.  I want you to know that your true healing and relief come from God and godly counsel.  Wine is not a bad thing as long as you can control yourself.  A drink or two is not sin unless you become drunk or it cause others to stumble.  Drunkenness is sin because the Spirit is unable to work within in you.  Drunkenness controls you and ends up taking over your life and the lives of your loved ones.  It is a tool of satan and it will cause damage.......satan is a thief, always prowling around looking for his next victim.  

So where do we go for therapy?  What do we do when our day was stressful and our week is dragging on?  Who do we talk to when a crisis is on the horizon or we are dealing with the unimaginable?   We can go to God.  We can spend time with friends who will encourage our faith or read the bible and be renewed by the great and wonderful promises that are for us to enjoy.  By trusting in Jesus to take away our hurts and stress we will lay our lives in His hands instead of the bottom of a bottle.  I can't imagine it is very easy climbing your way out of a slippery, glass bottle or a smooth sided beer can.  Let God help you.  Let God be your healer.  Let His chosen people guide you and give you therapy.  A therapist has to be way cheeper, in the end, than a alcohol addiction.

Let all that I am praise the Lord;

with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

Let all that I am praise the Lord;

may I never forget the good things he does for me.

He forgives all my sins

and heals all my diseases.

He redeems me from death 

 and crowns me with love and tender mercies.

He fills my life with good things.

My youth is renewed like the eagle's!

Psalm 103:1-5