“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Following Jesus is a life-and-death matter. Not just eternal life, as some Christians might prefer to think. Genuine pursuit of Jesus, hanging out with the kinds of people he hung out with, will bring you into deep spiritual places that are full of warfare. It is simply foolish to mess around in our evil days. You don’t even want to stick your toe in a sin-puddle if you are working to bring the kingdom of God into this world. Satan can and will use everything against you.
Getting drunk isn’t an option for Jesus-followers, because you can’t be strategic when you’re not in your right mind. You cannot simultaneously go deeper with Jesus and be on a path of life-destruction. Those paths are mutually exclusive. When you fill your life with the Holy Spirit, you are brimming over with songs, prayers, and thanksgiving. Those aren’t feeling words, those are direct actions that will overcome anything Satan is trying to throw at you.
Here’s your freedom for today: praising Jesus isn’t about feeling happy. Anyone I know who is pressing hard into following Jesus has signed up for a hard life. Living a life worth living means you are setting aside your own interests for the interests of others. You are rejecting the things of this world for the things of the Spirit. You are in a constant wrestle with all the things that are not right about this world and trying to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That kind of life doesn’t produce happiness. But it can produce praise. In fact, being filled with the Spirit means you have peace when it makes no sense to have peace. You praise when it makes no sense to praise. If you are in a hard season right now, press in instead of trying to escape. God is fighting on your behalf and spiritual victory comes through prayer and praise.