Our church family is working on a challenge from our preacher, Dr. Jason Locke, this month: "clean out and fill up." Our challenge is based on Jesus' story about the man who was delivered of an unclean spirit. He got rid of the evil spirit, but did not refill that spot with anything good. The evil spirit came back and brought "seven other spirits more wicked than itself...and the last state of that man (became) worse than the first." Matthew 12:43-45
Dr. J is challenging us to clean out unhealthy ways, specifically unwanted pounds and debt, and to replace those spots with Bible chapters read and persons encouraged each week.
I heard a story today that illustrated that challenge beautifully:
A young woman, Jessica, is finishing 18 months in a Christian rehabilitation facility, overcoming the evil spirit of alcohol and drugs in her life. An addict grows accustomed to the "highs" and "thrills" that come with substance abuse. Jessica said it takes something more powerful to fill that hole the addictions leave: FAITH.
"I was raised in a Christian home by Christian parents," Jessica recalled, "but I wandered away and got into a life of addiction. I was just coming back to Jesus when I found myself at The Dollar Store. I had filled a little basket with a small Bible, some lotion, some gloves and a pair of reading glasses, when I saw an old homeless woman, wrapped in a blanket, walking up and down the aisles of the store, just lingering in there in front of a rack of cross word puzzle books, saying, 'I wish I could read those'. I needed $12 to take a test later that day, but when I saw that old homeless woman, I knew she needed those comforts more than I did. I bought the little basket of things and gave them to her. Then I noticed that she was coughing, so I went out to the car and got the lunch I'd packed. Someone had given us oranges, and I had some in my lunch. I was almost homeless, myself, at this point, but I took her the oranges and bought her some cough drops. My boyfriend was mad at me for giving that stuff away. I said, 'Let's go turn in the recycling. When we did, we had just enough money for what we needed. Before we got there, I thought, 'I sure wish I had enough money for an ice cream. I wish I could find $1 in the parking lot.' And, when I got out of the car, a dollar flew at my feet in the parking lot."
Jessica said that it was stories like this one that began to fill the hole left by the "highs" and "thrills" of the drugs and alcohol. Living life by faith and watching God provide was more powerful than the evil spirit of addiction and left the evil spirit no room to return to Jessica's life!
--Posted by Mama O.
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