News papers, media houses, everywhere you look, there is a gambling advertisement. My son asked me the other day why I struggle to work hard, yet all I needed to do was put money in my phone, place a bet and the rewards coming streaming in. You should have seen my face, my mouth was wide open, I had absolutely no idea that he knew anything about gambling, or rather I didn’t think he pays any attention to all the advertisements, but he does. Almost every channel you click onto has gambling, and many people every day are getting hooked onto it. Young people are placing bets and when they loose, they commit suicide, honestly speaking where are we headed? When you look at it critically, these betting games are all made for the young people, to give them the mentality that with the little money that they have, they can be millionaires, which is so wrong! School going children keeping money meant for school fees so that they can bet even when they are in school. Am sure their thinking is that, they want to double or even triple their school fees, but unfortunately they end up loosing it all. Everything has being made so easy, so attractive, that everyone wants to join in.
What does the Bible say about gambling? does it approve of it? or does it condone it altogether? The Bible says that “for the Love of money is the root of all evil 1Timothy 6:10”. What gambling does, is make people greedy that they can win millions fast enough and it also makes them lazy! Once you win the lottery by doing nothing, except placing a bet or buying a raffle ticket, then you become lazy, you don’t invest, because you know that you will place the next bet and win again. You know that they say, ‘easy come, easy go,’ be it a relationship, a marriage, a job, anything that comes easily without working hard to achieve it, most of the times will be lost just as easily, why? there was no effort to it, everything was effortless, you didn’t even have to lift a finger, someone, somewhere made a call and you got the job, but unfortunately, because you know that whoever got you the job is top management, you don’t work hard, you come late, your rude, your not a team player, before you realise it, the same person who received you, will be the same person firing you. They would have had enough of you!
There is no verse in the Bible that actually says ‘thou shall not gamble,’ but we do see that, what drives people to gambling is greed, which leads to laziness and these two are things that we have been warned about in the Bible. Someone might say, I only want to play once and then am done, question I ask is this, are you guaranteed that when you play for the first time you will win? and even if you do, won’t you still be enticed to continue, because you didn’t struggle! I personally look at gambling as an addiction, which is so deadly just like alcoholism or heroin addiction. I have seen people who have placed bets on their houses, on their businesses with the hope that they will win and recover their property. Gambling leads to broken homes, broken families, and we know that this is the agenda of the devil himself. He hates unity, he is full of pride, and that is what he wants the world to be.
- Lust – “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew5:28).
- Gluttony – “for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags” (Proverbs 23:21).
- Greed – “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19).
- Laziness – “The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway” (Proverbs 15:19).
- Wrath – “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” ( Proverbs 15:1).
- Envy – “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:1-2).
- Pride – “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
In our current times, most people compare the seven deadly sins, to the ones listed in Proverbs. All of the seven deadly sins lead to disaster of one kind or the other, and if we use the Bible as our book of law, guiding us in our everyday lives, then we will see that everything that the world brings to us as good, is actually bad and evil. Yes we need money, but don’t let the love of money be more than your love for God, don’t let your heart be filled with greed, work hard and stop being lazy, don’t let anger and rage fill your hearts, don’t let envy be your everyday life, such that everyone refers to you as the envious type. Fill your hearts with love from Heaven above, because when the love of God fills your life, everything else will fall into place.
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