There are many substances and destructive behaviors that can ruin a person’s life. Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, pornography, gambling, are a few of the most popular vices that can destroy a person’s life. Those we love, our sons, our daughters, our parents, co-workers and associates can at times affect not only our lives with their addictions, but those of their own family. Many of us want to do something, and maybe have even tried to intervene, but to no avail. The saying is true, “You can’t set somebody free against their will.” So what do we do?
If you are a counselor you may try to cultivate within them a desire to be free. You may tell them the Pro’s and Con’s and consequences of their addiction. I want to come at this from a Christian perspective because I believe God is the power to set people free. If we use Jesus as the model we can see that He ministered to a broad spectrum of people. He would go from Matthew the Tax Collector, to ministering to the poor, to casting the devil out of the Madman of Gadara who lived in the tombs. Even though Jesus was God in the flesh He never demanded that anyone obey Him or even listen to Him. He prayed and He preached and anyone that asks Him He helped. Like Jesus we should pray, preach and help. The rest is up to God and the person.
Like Jesus we may have pain over them rejecting their deliverance.
Jesus cried for Jerusalem at least three times. Luke 13 tells us about a day when He wept over the city before arriving there. As “He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem,” He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”(Luke 13:34–35).
Luke 19 tells us about Jesus weeping over the city as He entered into it. He wept over it, saying: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:42–44).
Matthew 23 records a sermon Jesus preached in Jerusalem just a few days before He was crucified, and at the conclusion (vs. 37–39) we read words almost identical to those of His lament in Luke 13.
He was weeping over the tragedy of a lost opportunity.
Along with the joy of those that receive the help, we will have to live with the pain of those that reject it. We can take comfort in knowing it is not us that they are rejecting it is God Himself. We are not God, we are His servants. We are not to judge. We must leave the door open and pray.
2Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
Like Jesus we may have pain over them rejecting their deliverance.
Jesus cried for Jerusalem at least three times. Luke 13 tells us about a day when He wept over the city before arriving there. As “He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem,” He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”(Luke 13:34–35).
Luke 19 tells us about Jesus weeping over the city as He entered into it. He wept over it, saying: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:42–44).
Matthew 23 records a sermon Jesus preached in Jerusalem just a few days before He was crucified, and at the conclusion (vs. 37–39) we read words almost identical to those of His lament in Luke 13.
He was weeping over the tragedy of a lost opportunity.
Along with the joy of those that receive the help, we will have to live with the pain of those that reject it. We can take comfort in knowing it is not us that they are rejecting it is God Himself. We are not God, we are His servants. We are not to judge. We must leave the door open and pray.
2Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
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