Excess 

Prayer can never be in excess.  Charles Spurgeon

There are many things in life that can be taken to excess.  The following is a list of things that we often go to extreme measures to obtain and many of those excesses can lead to dire consequences.

Food is something that can be eaten to excess.  It can lead us to obesity, heart disease and any number of health issues yet we sometimes continue these excesses even if it ruins our health and shortens our life.

Alcohol can be taken to excess where it hinders our ability to make decisions.  You can take the example of former Cowboys player Josh Brent as a life that has forever been changed.  He drove while intoxicated, wrecked his car and killed his best friend.

Money and the accumulation of and the lack of it can do as much harm as any other excess on earth.  It can lead to greed and selfishness or lead to the opposite extreme of using any means possible to obtain it, whether it is cheating, stealing or even killing for it. 

Drugs are another excess that can lead people to do things they would never think of otherwise.  How many people’s lives were ruined by drugs because they thought they would not become addicted?  You can look at the number of actors in Hollywood who thought that very thing and lost their lives in the process.  

If you think about the things in this list, each one, in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing.  It is the use of them that can be fatal.  If we think we are strong enough to withstand any one of these we are fooling ourselves.  Satan intends for us to fail and he has a lot of ammunition doesn’t he?  We often make it easy for him to bring us down. 

I started thinking about what is there on earth that would be something that it would be good for us to be addicted to.  The only answer I could come up with is prayer.  Prayer is the one thing that we can use to fight all the other addictions.  It is the most powerful antidote around and we don’t use it often enough.  When God tells us to pray without ceasing, he means “all the time”.  Not just before a meal or Sunday at church.  That means every minute of every day we should be praying. When we pray without ceasing it fills our mind and keeps the wrong things from getting in. 

One of the things I have learned to do is any time I reach an obstacle in life, I stop everything I am doing and pray.  It doesn’t have to be an eloquent, lengthy prayer.  One of the ones I use often is “Father help me”.  Here is another one.  “Father I need You.”  God knows all the words in the dictionary so you are not going to impress him with your amazing grasp of the English language.  The shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus wept.”  I know God heard Jesus on that day long ago and He will hear our cries as well.

When you feel like you have reached the end of your capacity to handle what life is throwing at you, do some deep knee bends.  God is waiting and listening and He loves us beyond anything we can ever comprehend.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of using things in this life in excess. You created me in your image and sometimes I don’t glorify You when I use things in this life to excess.  Help me to overcome the addictions of this world and turn to you for everything.  You will not fail me and I praise You for Your love for me.    

        

Scripture: Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.  1 Thessalonians 5:1-28