Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Wednesday 9/9/09)

Today’s Devotional Written By an Insightful Young Woman: Tracy Koweh

Part 1- - - -Pre-Intervention

Matthew 18:6-8 (Amplified Bible)

⁶But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better (more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea.

⁷Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!

⁸And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble and sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is better (more profitable and wholesome) for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into everlasting fire.

There is a show that I watch on cable called “Intervention”. The show is a documentary of a family’s last attempt to save a loved one whose life is being ruined by an addiction. It’s a very very graphic show of drug, alcohol and sex addictions. The addicts have all agreed to be recorded and interviewed, but they have no idea that their final interview will be an actual intervention.

Now the part that is interesting to me, is the night before the intervention- - - -the pre-intervention. A professional counselor meets with the family and pretty much makes them admit to their part in the addiction. They then are given an assignment to write a letter expressing how much they love their family member, but the action they WILL take if the addict doesn’t accept “the gift” of treatment. Some times the act is as simple as cutting off funds, but sometimes it’s as hard as taking away visitation rights with children, or evicting them from their own home.

The meeting is so profound because it’s as if the family members are as much to blame for the addiction as the substance the addict is hooked on. In our daily lives we have been guilty of this same offense. We have let people and their position in our lives, stop us from being the child of God we have been called to be. We have let the fear of others opinion cause us to close our mouths and turn our heads the other way.

Today as we begin our hump day, let us decide to take a bold stand for Christ. Let us no longer be a co-signer to the things that are not uplifting to the Kingdom of God . Today let us take a stand for Christ, as He did for us on Calvary . Let us choose to get it together the easy way, before God has to evict us from something that He has already blessed us with.