SPIRITUAL GAMBLING
The problem of compulsive gambling may seem foreign to most of us. Yet experts believe that millions of Americans are psychologically addicted to gambling. It gives them the excitement of hope and risk, but it usually ends in defeat. It is indeed a temporary pleasure. For those who engage in it, losing is the name of the game; winning means not losing everything.
Some Christians have a similar problem--spiritual gambling. It's a way of living that involves taking chances by seeing how far we can stretch God's patience. Although we know there is no such thing as "luck," too often we gamble away our time or dabble in sinful pleasures. We live as if it were possible to ignore the will of God and still come out ahead. We seem to be addicted to the excitement of risk.
There's not one chance in five that God won't keep His word. There's not even one chance in a thousand. We can be absolutely sure that what He's promised will come true. That's why it makes so much sense to be like Moses and believe God. He was willing to trust in the reliable word of the Lord rather than take his chances with the temporary excitement of sin (Hebrews 11:24-26). He believed that God was 100-percent trustworthy. Do you?