Lenten Devotional - Day Five

Scripture: Psalm 32:5-11

“I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.” (Psalm 32:8-9)

  What makes someone teachable? Nothing more than the desire to learn. It takes a spirit of humility to acknowledge we don’t have it all figured out and never will. Our whole life long we need the steadying and guiding hand of the Lord. And the Lord often chooses to teach us the way we should go through others, through men and women who are just as imperfect as we are.

  Some of us can allow ourselves to be taught that addiction is a disease. Recreational drug use can and will, without warning, alter the chemical makeup of the brain. The addict no longer thinks as we do; in fact, in many ways he or she cannot. This does not absolve them of their destructive habits and the pain they cause to self and others. Acknowledging that addiction is a disease does not mean we give in to enabling behaviors. Instead, it makes it possible for us to feel compassion rather than judgment.

  Some of us can allow ourselves to hear and acknowledge we have a problem, that we are seeking freedom in substances that put us in chains. We can be taught that there is a better way, and that there is ONE who is stronger than the all-encompassing desire for the next drink or the next fix. This ONE is God, and the God who created you has the power to redeem you from all ills, to instruct you and lead you out of darkness and into life like you have never known.

  Let us pray for the humility to acknowledge that we have much to learn, whether we are an addict or clean. Let us pray for God to send each of us wise men and women to teach us in the way we should go, the way of love and life.

Alice Tondora, Contributor

Remember in Prayer: Ask that God might open the heart and mind of those seeking treatment for their addiction and allow them to accept God’s instruction.

Click Here PDF - Day Five Devotion

Informational Resources

  For information about prescription opioid misuse and heroin use, go to: www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/relationship-between-prescription-drug-abuse-heroin-use/introduction
  For information about cocaine, go to: www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/cocaine/what-cocaine