I have two friends who recently became Christians. Before their conversion they both had serious drinking problems. One said to the other, “Before I was saved I drank a fifth of whiskey a day.” The other one said to me, “I hated to tell him, but I spilled that much every day.”
My friend has now been dry for several months. He says, “The real miracle is that for the last two months I haven’t even wanted a drink.” Before he became a Christian, he said, he had tried to quit many times. But it was always because he felt he had to. Now he said, “I quit because I wanted to.”
That’s what people need—someone to change their “want to” and then enable them to do it. Almost anyone can tell an alcoholic what to do. He ought to sober up, clean up, start a regular exercise program, get a job, start going to church, and so on. However, I can’t stay with him day and night. I can’t nurse him through life. So in a few days something will happen and he’ll be drunk again. My advice was wasted because he had neither the desire nor the power the change.
Jesus is the great enabler. He can change your desires and your “want to.” He can satisfy your thirst for alcohol and create a thirst for something better. More than that, he can give you the inner strength to say no. That “real miracle” my friend talked about can happen to you if you’ll follow Christ.