It is a fact of life that our lifestyle affects the quality of our life and that of our families.

Alcoholism for example affects millions of families and individuals. It tears families apart and is terribly damaging to children in their developmental years when they have a parent or parents who are alcoholics. It causes innumerable crimes including rape, physical and sexual abuse, murder, robbery and maimed lives—and slaughter on our highways.

Smokers also adversely affect their loved ones and others. Pulpit Helps reported that thirty percent of all cancer deaths are related to smoking. There is also a 70 percent greater risk of heart disease among smokers than among nonsmokers. Furthermore, second-hand smoke inhaled by non-smoking family members (and others) can also be deadly.

And while it is far from being politically correct to say so, according to an article in the former Moody Monthly magazine, homosexuals account for half the nation’s cases of syphilis, even though they represent only a small percent of the population. The reason? Promiscuity. Homosexuals are also the principal victims of AIDS and other infectious diseases, and are fifteen times more likely to commit a murder. And according to the EP News Service, the U.S. government spends more on AIDS research than it does on heart diseases. This is in spite of the fact that cardiac disorders claim forty times more deaths than AIDS.

God has a sound reason for all of his laws—including the ones that cover the sins of the spirit such as emotional dishonesty, jealousy, envy, malice, hatred, resentment, greed, lust, an unforgiving spirit, and so on. All of these are damaging to the body as well as to the emotions and spirit just as much as cigarette smoking is to the body—and perhaps even more damaging. It’s a fact of life that whatever we sow, we reap. That’s the law of the harvest.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for Your Word, the Bible, that gives clear instructions for healthy physical, emotional, relational and spiritual living. Please give me a love and deep appreciation for Your Word, the desire to study and understand it, and the good sense to follow the instructions found therein. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Galatians 6:7 (NIV).