Good or bad?

 Just because something makes you happy doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for you. 

Take Twinkies. Twinkies are high in sugar and fat. They’re also full of chemicals to extend their shelf life. Twinkies are obviously not good for you. 

Yet some people eat them. And In moderation a Twinkie or two won’t kill you. Not in the long run anyway. 

But what might happen if you start craving Twinkies? What might happen if you start buying them in larger quantities? If you start eating one every day? What if you start to crave them more snd more until you begin eating them after each meal? What if you started eating them AS your meal and eventually never ate anything else?

You know what would happen. You would get sick snd fat. Eventually you would become malnourished. You might even go to a doctor who would tell you to stop eating Twinkies and eat some vegetables for heavens sake! But if you refuse and keep going down that path you will wind up dead. 

This isn’t that far fetched believe it or not. I read about a girl who refused to eat anything but chicken nuggets. She had to have a blood transfusion and nearly died from the lack of nutrients. So this scanario isn’t so hypothetical. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2092071/amp/Stacey-Irvine-17-collapses-eating-McDonalds-chicken-nuggets-age-2.html

Another example of something you like or something that makes you happy that’s bad for you is toxic relationships. I’ve been in my share of them when I was younger and the main reason I stayed in them was because I didn’t want to be alone. Being alone for me was worse than being in an abusive relationship. And so even though I wasn’t what you would call happy nor healthy,  I preferred that to the much more healthy alternative of being alone. 

One more good example of something that you want that you THINK will make you happy is accumulating stuff. I’ve been guilty of this also in my life, collecting stuff I didn’t need. It clutters up your life snd your space. You can become a hoarder (not far fetched. I come from a family of hoarders which is why I have struggled with this). But worse is the spiritual state that collecting things indicates. It shows the heart - that believes stuff can fill the empty space in ones heart that was meant for God to fill. I also have been rich enough to have nearly everything I wanted. It left me empty. It will leave you empty too. 

Notice how these things are all things that you want but that aren’t really good for you. There are many other examples. 

Eventually things that are bad for you that you hold onto can lead to death. And that’s exactly how sin is. 

It starts with something small - indulging in a “Twinkie” now and then. Something that’s bad for you (all sin is bad for you). But if you continue doing it you will get hooked. And sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 

I’ve seen grown women indulging their children’s every whim. They don’t understand that they are not doing their kids any favors. Those kids will not only grow up to be entitled, they will also never tell themselves no even to things that are bad for them. This is a recipe for disaster. Drugs, bad relationships, not being able to hold down a job, jail and death are in the future of those kids. 

There’s a solution. 

Jesus Christ is always the solution. 

He can heal you from all addictions, all unhealthy behaviors, all sin and death. 

Sometimes the medicine doesn’t taste like cherry. Sometimes the medicine tastes like medicine. But it’s good medicine. And it will heal you. The question is - do you want to be healed? Or do you want to continue down the road to death?