Bad Luck Pills
It seems like there are pills for everything these days. Vitamins, prescription drug pills for anything & everything, buzz pills, headache pills, dizziness pills, even cyanide pills for spies when they get caught (?). Some folks have as many as 15 or 20 various drug pills going. My mother had about 7 & lived to 79. My father was pill shy & wouldn’t take ANY – he lived to be 85. Maybe too many pills are not good?
Could there be bad luck pills? As in take the “pill” then have bad luck? I believe SIN is a bad luck pill. Especially that pesky besetting sin. It’s the one many folks have hanging on them. Maybe it’s profanity, lying, stealing, tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, gambling, promiscuity, etc. Each soul knows what their besetting sin is because their conscience AND common sense has told them. And according to scripture, God disciplines people – especially his own redeemed – “judgment starts in the household of God”. 1 Peter 4:17
During the conquest of Canaan in the time of Joshua, a character named Achan stole some gold & silver which were “devoted to the treasury of the Lord” by God’s command. Achan’s B.L.P. fouled the blessing on Israel’s mission & got many killed including himself and his family. (Very interesting Bible account – Joshua chapter 7), of course that was the age of LAW – now we are in the age of Grace, but we are dealing with the same God.
My personal experience with B.L. Pills for decades is every time I fell to the besetting sin, usually the same day there was bad luck & guilt. And oh, how crafty the human mind is in rationalizing sin to be O.K. Then if you (or I) the indulger in a certain type of sin have been enlightened by God or your conscience that it was/is offensive to God, it still will be even decades later – God rarely if ever changes His mind (immutability is a Divine attribute.)
Bad luck pills in the unbeliever’s life keeps them “unlucky” and unlikely to move towards God. Those “pills” in the believer’s life keeps us “unlucky” & damages our relationship with God. It is an awesome feeling to experience undeniable answered prayer & miracles even, but B.L. pills block anything good coming down on us from above. “Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” 1 John 3:21-22 But in the guilt of SIN and hypocrisy we pray less, and we get less. Below are some references that seem to apply:
-- Hosea 7:2 “. . . the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid without. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil works. Now their deeds encompass them, they are before my face.”
-- Proverbs 3:11-12 “. . . do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves . . .”
-- Proverbs 28:13 “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
-- Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
-- Hebrews 12:1 “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”
So, what is the point of this B.L.P. essay? I believe the purpose of life is to find salvation in Christ & be blessed. But “Bad Luck Pills” put a “fly in the ointment” of our very purpose of living. I suppose we should look at those besetting sins and plead the blood of Jesus over them. Only that power can set us free to enjoy “better luck,” and/or God’s blessing. Choose Jesus, He is Alive. See also “The Blessing & The Curse” link 66.
Other interesting Titles: www.gospelnotes.org * * F. J. Stone * *
121
