Christian Living

Alcohol Doesn't Have To Control Your Life

by Ernesto Aragon
11/09/17
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Alcohol Doesn’t Have to Control Your Life

When I was in my early twenties, I had a serious drinking problem that I used to hide my severe depression. I used to go to the clubs, like many young people do, and get so drunk that I would black out. It seemed that the alcohol numbed out my depression and I had a sense of peace, even if it was for a little while. I knew I shouldn’t have been drinking because I was a Christian at that time, or at least I called myself a Christian.

Whenever I drank, the dark world we live in seemed like a dream; a bad dream that I would eventually wake up from, but I never did. Even though the alcohol numbed out the pain for a little while, I always felt worse the next morning. When I say I felt worse, I don’t mean physically worse since that’s obvious, but I felt even more depressed than I did before I started drinking in the first place.

One time, in particular, I bought a bottle of light alcohol and finished the entire bottle all at once because I was so depressed. About an hour after that, the effects of the alcohol started to kick in. At that moment, I felt nothing… I didn’t feel joy, sadness, or even anger, just nothingness.

When I closed my eyes, I could hear a worship song playing. As soon as I heard that, I freaked out and opened my eyes and wondered where the music was coming from, but it there wasn’t any music playing. So I closed my eyes again. Not too long after I closed my eyes a second time, I heard the worship music playing again. This time I realized that the music playing was the Lord speaking to my heart.

As the tears started streaming down my face, I heard the Lord say to me in a quiet voice, “I love you son.”

“How could Jesus still love me while I’m in the middle of my sin??” I thought. I felt so ashamed, but I could feel the peace of the Holy Spirit encountering me even though I was still drunk.

After that day, I never got drunk from alcohol ever again. And it wasn’t because I was trying to do the right thing. It wasn’t even because I was trying to be a good Christian. It was because of the reckless love of God. His love is what changed me from that moment on.

When God gave me a purpose, how could I waste it getting drunk all the time while there are orphans and refugees killing themselves because no one wants to help them? My pastor didn’t tell me to stop drinking, and I didn’t stop out of some religious obligation, but I stopped because I was breaking the heart of Jesus.

I stopped because I had better things to do with my life than waste it away getting drunk. I knew I had a purpose and a Godly legacy to leave on this earth, and that was my motivation. As followers of Jesus, we are not motivated by fear, but we are motivated by the reckless love of God. Jesus already knew the Samaritan woman at the well had multiple sexual partners before He started talking to her, but He didn’t condemn her (read John 4:4-24).

Instead, He offered her something this world can never give; the gift of everlasting life. While the gift of living forever one day in Heaven in amazing, how does that benefit us while we’re still on earth? By sharing that good news with as many people as possible so that they can go to the same place and be forever connected with God.

The gift of everlasting life is not just for our benefit, but it’s for the benefit of others who don’t know don’t know anything about the transformational love of Jesus. While I’m glad I stopped getting drunk from alcohol, my testimony is not for my benefit, but it’s for all the people around me who still struggle with alcohol abuse.

In the same way, we all have a testimony, and it’s important that we don’t keep our testimonies to ourselves. A testimony that’s never shared becomes history, but a testimony that’s shared releases the Spirit of prophecy that will supernaturally transform peoples lives (read Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 12:11).