“Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”
When I was much younger, living in South Florida, there was a guy I really did not like. It seemed that every time I went to a particular set of tennis courts, he was there. Without going into too much detail, there was a good reason not to like him. One day, while talking with my accountability partner, I mentioned how running into this person affected me again. His very direct and simple response was, “Then quit going where you see him.” Well, that was certainly simple enough. It wasn’t like there weren’t plenty of other tennis facilities where I lived, and these courts weren’t even my favorites. Solomon, in this verse, makes a point about people who are tempted to drink more than they should and find themselves doing things that don’t bring glory to God. His counsel, as found in other places, is to stay away from those temptations. We all have things in our lives that act as triggers for thoughts and behaviors that don’t bring glory to God. It is incumbent upon us to identify those things and, as my accountability partner shared, remove them from our experience. This is the first, yet most often overlooked, step in resisting temptation. It was simple but great counsel from the person I had chosen to help oversee the condition and growth of my soul as a follower of Christ. Today, as much as possible, remove those triggers from your life. #BeTheEdge
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’” Jesus
