To be quickly rich without any labor, this is the dream of all sinners. That is the foundation of gambling.
Gambling – definition: To play a game for money or property; to bet, to take a chance, to risk on an uncertain outcome; to expose yourself to danger and to proceed in the face of it.
The attraction of gambling is entertainment and the love of money. Both are very addictive strongholds of satan. The victims are people who are lazy, covetous, foolish and ambitious in the same time. That combination is deadly. Gambling is a scheme to escape labor, but in reality, gambling is an evil spirit that kills and destroys.
In the U S gambling is an industry of billions of dollars. The lottery is the favorite legal gambling. Gambling is the fastest growing addiction in the world. 1/7 teenagers and 1/10 adults that gamble will end up as addicted to it. Gambling wrecks homes and marriages. The business is wicked and it attracts all type of men but especially the poor who believe in the get rich quick schemes. The poor neighborhoods have the highest number of location for gambling and lottery. These are sold in poor grocery stores to attract the people who buy food. Many times a poor man has gone home to his family without food and just with a lottery slip and the promise of millions. ‘The American Dream’ is intimately connected with the evil spirit of gambling.
The casinos machines are built in such a way that 80-90% of the winning numbers go to the patron. The chance to win there is minimal but the attraction to make money without work is very high. Even the few that win, statistics say that they will lose all their money in maximum two years and they are back to gamble again, ready to sell even their soul to satan.
If you study the Word of God and His ways you can deduce that gambling is a sin and it is to be rejected as a practice to make money. Gambling violates God’s law because of the following:
1-The foundation and the attraction of it is the love of money, which is evil.
‘Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income’ (Ecc 5:10)
2-Gambilng encourages laziness and covetousness in the same time. The Bible says that we should work and be good stewards of the income we make. We are to tithe to God, then use the remaining to take care of the family. Any surplus we are to invest it as seed in the work of God or to save for emergencies in the future.
‘Lazy hands make a man poor but diligent hands bring wealth’ (PV 10:4)
‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife…’ (Ex 20:17)
3-Gambling may be entertaining but it is addictive. All addictions are sins because they master the person who becomes a slave
‘A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him’ (2Pet 2:19)
4-Gambling gives false hope to people and builds false imaginations. God is to be our only hope. Our future is joyful because God, in Christ will change our sorrow into glory. Any other hope of riches and fame outside Christ is false and criminal.
‘The hopes of the wicked come to nothing…when a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power come to nothing’ (PV 10:28; 11:7)
‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:13)
5-Gambling does not give glory to God but to the ‘luck or fortune’ of men. There are things in this world that may not be bad in themselves, but they are not beneficial to the kingdom of God and to our testimony as believers.
‘Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial…but I will not be mastered by anything…but not everything is constructive…’ (1Cor 6:12; 10:23)
That means that gambling does no good to me or to others. Its hope of success is a deception that will only destroy my life and my family. It is the entertainment of the devil and it is to be rejected, in Jesus name!
6-Man was created in the image of God. But gambling makes a man to be a fool
‘Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is gone, they will desert him and in the end he proves to be a fool’ (Jer 17:11)
God is angry with them that believe in the idol of fortune or gambling. This is because it makes the people deaf to God’s voice and stubborn to His leading. Gambling is the backslider’s god and the fantasy of the rebellious (Is 65:11,12)
‘Dear Lord Jesus, I pray that you expose this wicked, seducing, evil spirit of gambling so that we can hate it enough to separate from it totally. We ask for forgiveness for any desire to be lazy, to cheat or to covet, and desire wealth in the same time. Let Your light shine on our understanding!
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen!’

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