BE SATISFIED

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.

Instead, be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

It is interesting that Paul puts these two things in contrast, one against the other. “Don't get drunk with wine.” This recognizes there are things in life that tend to drive you to drink. There are pressures and demands so severe that you will feel the need of some stimulation, something that will undergird you a bit, give you some confidence and add help and strength. "But don't let it be wine or any other artificial stimulant, because it so easily leads to lack of control." The word here translated debauchery is the Greek word that means "without any limits, with reckless abandonment." It refers to escapism and the tendency to throw all restraints overboard and live without control.

But in contrast to that he says to satisfy that need for something to stimulate and strengthen you by being filled with the Spirit, for that is God's provision for this need in human life. There is no need to feel ashamed over the sense of need. We were not made to be self-sufficient, independent creatures. Because you feel like you need something to help you to make you feel adequate to face life, do not be troubled by that. You do need something. But let it be the right thing. "Be filled with the Spirit."

Here he touches the great secret of real Christianity, the possibility of being filled with the Spirit. When you believed in Jesus Christ and received Him as your Lord, the Holy Spirit came to live in you. You have the Spirit, but the interesting paradox is that, though all Christians have the Holy Spirit, we constantly need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the momentary taking from Him of the resources you need for the situation in which you are. It is a quiet drinking again and again of an inner supply of strength.

When Jesus said of the person who drinks of Him, "Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water," John says, "By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive" (John 7:39a). That is the strengthening that comes from within, and there is plenty there for any situation.

Father, I pray that You will teach me to draw upon the well of water within, to know that every demand made upon me is a demand made upon

You, and that you are prepared, ready, to live Your life through

me in every situation and thus manifest Your grace.

Pastor Ray Pritchard