SNCC
- Feb 27, 2020
- 5 min read

Cut to the Chase

Updated: Feb 29, 2020

So many people face the problem of abusing themselves in one way or another. Alcoholism,

drugs,

pornography,

gambling,

self-harm

and even suicide.

This post is not one of condemnation, rather one of love, understanding and support. I don't want you in any way shape or form to feel guilty and unworthy due to a problem you face. The truth is, we are all not worthy of God's saving grace. But your problem does not have to dictate your future. The things you do to abuse your body or mind may make you feel better in the near future but ultimately have a debilitating long-term effect. If you over do the alcohol, you may get liver issues, if it is the drugs then you may have other issues. With pornography, you may feel unable to accept real relationships or have struggle with your own spouce. Selfharm, although it is a release, may mean you have to live with scars the rest of your life. And suicide, it causes you to miss everything God has got for your future and others miss having you around.

Alcohol

Alcohol was mentioned a few times in the Bible. Let us look at Noah and the Pentecost. In Noah's case, he 'drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.' Here, we can see that Noah's dunkeness led to him being exposed, vulnerable and in a shameful position. Even though this was the case Romans says As Scripture "Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame." Therefore, we are encouraged to not be in a blured or altered state that can lead to our vulnerability. Ok, I'm not saying you can't get a bit tipsy now and then, but we must act responsibly.

There are also a couple of occasions in the Bible where being filled with the spirit or ernest praying can look like drunkeness. The first account I want to look at is of Hannah in 1 Samual 1:14 "Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk". Therefore, she was praying in the spirit. In the Pentecost account, the crowd shout that they are drunk, to which a disciple responds (and I have to wonder if he was slightly sarcastic) "It's only 9 am". When we move in the spirit it may look to man to be immoral or like something bad. Keep your eyes fixed firmly on jesus, do not worry about what your prayer life looks like to others remember 'go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.'

Pornography

I will briefly skim over this topic as it is not something I want to dwell on. If we look at Colossians 3:5 we read "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." Here, I believe it is saying that some can almost end up idolising porn, putting it above God. We need to think about what we watch as "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness." We need to be careful what we let ourselves watch and read, we need to dwell on true and noble things.

On Saturday night, I was watching "Life On Mars" with my grandparents. In this series, a man ends up in a comma and goes back in time. In the episode we watched on Saturday night he discovers that his father was convicted of involvement with pornographic material. This led to dire consequences of him escaping and never returning to his family.

I don't know if you have ever seen 'Fireproof' but here the man watches porn (his own marriage is failing) but is convicted of the wrong it is doing. He decides to quite litrally destroy any porn by going in the garden and bashing the computer with a sledge hammer.

I am in no way saying that you need to go to such extreme measures to free ourselves. But please try and guard your eye gates.

Self harm

Recently, I have seen a rapid influx in the amount of people who self-harm. By definition self-harm is "deliberate injury to oneself, typically as a manifestation of a psychological or psychiatric disorder." So, it includes anything that causes you intentional harm. The most known form is cutting but self harm also includes biting, punching, pulling out hair, etc.

So what can you do if you self harm?

Commonly, people are advised to hold an ice cube or snap an elastic band on their wrist. But, does this actually help the root cause? I would want to disagree.

This paraphrased bible scripture is one which I think would help anyone who self harms. I know someone who clings to this scripture instead of causing themself harm

Therefore, Christ took the pain so we did not have to inflict it upon ourselves.

What are common reasons for self-harm?

pressures at school or work

money worries

sexual, physical or emotional abuse

bereavement

breakdown of a relationship

loss of a job

an illness or health problem

low self-esteem

an increase in stress

difficult feelings, such as depression, anxiety, anger or numbness

There are so many different factors that can cause self harm. it would be easy for me to say to just give it all to God, but sometimes we need the immediate, human support.

Now, I know different people cope in different ways. I'm not going to try to say that everything will work for everyone, but here are a few suggestions

1) Pray- tell God what is going on. He knows you so well and you are his child

2) Write- blog, write a story, journal

3) excercise- do something strenuous that will get the same release but without the guilt

4) worship- shout out the wonder of God, remind yourself why you praise him

5) commune- get people around you, please dont go through this alone

6) scripture- i will post a gallery of images to declare below

I hope that if any of these issues resonate with you, this post has helped

But what if you want to help others?

Just be there

Show love

Be non-judgemental

Show compassion