Proverbs 26:11
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.”
👆🏾👆🏾👆🏾This proverb and me quoting what Jesus asked the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, “do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6); is what runs through my mind daily about certain people!
I’ve come to realize that sometimes you can see someone hurting themselves through destructive choices, and you can desperately want to help them, or you have helped them. You may have warned them, prayed for them, supported them, rescued them, and extended grace to them, only to watch them like a foolish dog return to its own vomit. Again and again they return to the very things that are destroying them.
At some point, there is nothing more you can do for them apart from letting them go into the mighty hands of God. Pray for them. Love them. But step back as you watch them fall hard into the consequences of their choices and behavior.
Sometimes people have to experience the consequences of their own choices. Sometimes rock bottom becomes the place where they finally realize that the path they have chosen is killing them.
The sinful spirit of rebellion, pride, and arrogance have consequences. But so do God’s grace, love, tender mercies, and forgiveness. His hand is not only able to discipline; it is also able to restore.
But they have to choose wholeness.
They have to answer Jesus honestly: Do you want to be made well?
Healing requires letting go of long-held toxic things that have become familiar. Dependencies such as drugs, alcohol, substances, self-sabotaging behaviors abusive patterns, toxic relationships, and even the false identities they’ve grown comfortable wearing.
Freedom requires surrender. It requires choosing to run to Jesus instead of running back to what has always been killing them. It requires repentance, deliverance, and a willingness. They have to choose to be made well. They have to choose to be set free from their foolishness and the lies and bondage of satan.
We cannot make that choice for another person. We can pray. We can love. We can speak truth. We can offer help. We can set boundaries. But ultimately, they have to choose wholeness.
And sometimes the most loving thing we can do, is stop standing in the way of their impending doom full consequences. Place that person into God’s hands, and trust Him to meet them wherever they finally decide to turn toward Him.
“DO YOU WANT TO BE MADE WELL?”
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