Ian Bartlett kicks off his first blog on the theme of gambling and shares from his experiences about the danger it can be to us.
Growing up I never went to church and my parents were not Christians, My fathers church was the pub and the Bookmakers and like father like son I was to follow his footsteps. One day my father was at home the next he was gone. I was 9, he left a legacy
to me that I was unable to break for another 40 years, he taught me to Gamble.
From the age of 16 to 46 I was to become a prolific Gambler and a prolific thief as a consequence of my actions I spent nearly 18 years of my life in the Criminal Justice System, In and out of prison became a part of my life.
Gambling gives you a real false sense of hope, against insurmountable odds you actually convince yourself that the next throw of the dice, the next turn of a card will all fall in your favour.
Of course it might, but only for a very short period of time, and when you lose which you will, you end up chasing your losses. Gambling consumes your thoughts day and night.
Your daily life and how you interact with other people are affected, you begin to lie to Family and Friends. Your daily fix is that you have to find the money to serve your addiction, and the spiral becomes uncontrollable and you find yourself with no
where to turn.
We know that the Lord has plans to prosper us and not to harm us to give us a hope and a future Jeremiah 29 11-14
As Paul said to the Philippians 4 v 19 “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory
in Christ Jesus” and as Jesus explained in his Sermon on the Mount, we are to just trust him and not to worry about money, food or clothes.
Our Lord said that the Devil is the father of lies and if we let him, he will try to convince you that trusting is not enough and that some how we have to fix things ourselves.
Next time….’Stepping into the breech against Gambling’.
