PFW Article: Addictions

Addictions

Addictions come in all forms, sizes and conditions. Some addictions are old and some are new, BUT all of them detract from our love of God by substituting an addiction for the time that should be spent with our Lord and Savoir. We seem to get rid of some addictions and insert new ones to take their place. I was addicted to cigarettes and alcohol. In fact I had a thirty-eight year love affair with cigarettes and a twenty-year addiction to alcohol. This one became such an addiction that I became a drunk When I gave up drinking which came first and then smoking (and I thank God every day that I did) I substituted food and chocolate. I could taste food for the first time in over thirty years. Oh what a joy! Something so simple could give such pleasure. Unfortunately I forgot when to quit. Then came soap operas with me living vicariously thru the likes of Erica Kane and Vicki on One Life to live. Idolizing the way they lived and the adventurous twist and turns their lives took. Believe it or not TV can become an addiction or is that just mind numbing state of perpetual zombie ness. . Anything to take our mind off our real problem- our distance from God.

Ladies, some of you are sitting in the audience are saying that this doesn’t describe me. I’m as close as I can be to God. Yet some things start out so simple that without us noticing them they, turn themselves into things we idolize and whala! Guess what. These too can become addicting. Anything that turns your eyes off Christ to the exclusion of all else is an addiction. One of my favorites is the shopaholic who says she absolutely needs to shop or she is going to have a nervous breakdown. Or how about the one who has to watch Survivors each week to see who the winner is, or CSI, which happens to be, my favorite show. Some of these may seem silly but each and everyone is taking away not adding to your time with God.

There are also the more serious addictions, the ones we keep secret from the world because we are Christians. These can include the secret drinking when everyone in the house is asleep and no one can see you, or the snort of an illegal drug to help you get thru the day or the secret web sites that no one else knows you have on your computer. The lying not only to others but also to yourself. The magazines which are hidden under the bed, the secret fantasies you have about your best friends husband, the bulimic eating binges, or the secret self mutilation which you always shrug off to a simple accident- these are all addictions of one sort or the other.

Most addictions are never brought to the light of day because of the shame attached to them so we go thru life wondering how we are ever going to win the battle that the devil has so very carefully laid out for us and with our own free will we have chosen. Yes ladies even saved people have hidden addictions with the difference being that we want to change and get rid of these addictions so that we can be closer to our Lord and Savoir. Unfortunately instead of going to the Bible which the good Lord gave us we listen to self-help programs on TV, read self-help books, attend self-help meetings or just self-help. While none of theses are bad things and at times can be beneficial to us none of these revolve around God’s word. Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Our Bible has all the answers to all our questions if we would only heed them. This requires study, reading and research, but it also requires faith. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Our text today is a simple one packed full of answers and help to overcome this and any other problem in our life. No one including God ever said it was going to be easy because our flesh and the devil will want to get in the way but it is doable and extremely rewarding when approached biblically and step by step get to see the changes this has wrought in our lives.

Let’s turn our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5: where we will be studying verses 4 thru 23. I am trying to do this with my newest addiction, food otherwise know as overeating.

4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

11Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. 12And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 14Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. 15See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

16Rejoice evermore. 17Pray without ceasing. 18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 19Quench not the Spirit. 20Despise not prophesyings. 21Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22Abstain from all appearance of evil.

23And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

The first two verses are reassuring us that we are not living in darkness because as we know the devil dwells there. As saved Christians we are living in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately we allow our fleshly bodies to get in the way and usually end up blaming the devil for everything we do wrong (the devil made me do it) when in truth it is our own free will that has set us on the path to our own destruction. Point in fact, every time I put something in my mouth that should not go there like cake, candy cookies etc. it is me not they devil who has chosen to over indulge. I, myself and me have done the eating because I could have always said no.

6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Yes folks Christ lived and died for us, for you and for me. What could be greater than that? Neither Dr. Phil nor Oprah can lay claim to that but do we listen to them. Of course we do because they are the experts. Not! Our Lord is the expert; so let’s start listening to Him. You know the still, small voice that we turn off at will. We should always leave it on so we can hear what the Lord has to say.

The Lord is talking about the saved among us. We are exhorted to comfort one another and to edify one another. Edify; to build, construct, to instruct in such a way as to improve, enlighten, or uplift morally or spiritually. In other words folks we cannot do it alone. No man is an island and at one time or another we need uplifting. As Christians we should always try to encourage each other in every way. If one of us looks like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders then everyone should gather the wagons in a circle and edify that person. That is what the Lord has commanded us to do. He has not command us to look the other way or to make cutting or demeaning remarks. He has said to edify one another. Believe it or not by doing this we not only are helping that person but helping ourselves also. In this process we just might discover that are problems aren’t as huge as we think they are.

Instead of always feeling sorry for ourselves and the burdens we carry; instead of saying no one cares; instead of going back into the same destructive behavior we go into every time something goes wrong in our lives we should rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks. In other words stop thinking about yourself and start putting God in the center of your life. The biggest reason we get addicted to anything is self. We are basically a very selfish people. Everything revolves around us and most conversations are about me. Me, me, me, ad nausum. My mother doesn’t understand me, my children won’t listen to me, my husband doesn’t understand me, my church doesn’t understand me. ME, ME, ME! It is time to get over ourselves. No one says that this is going to be easy, but with the Lord’s help anything is possible. The Lord says to pray without ceasing, hold fast to that which is good and abstain from all appearance of evil. If you have a small but irritating addiction then get rid of it. If you have a large and self-destructive addiction get help. The Lord is reaching out to give you rules to live by. Admit that you need help and it will be forth coming.

by Ellen Clugston

He is coming again. Give him your time and you will be justly rewarded. Fill yourself with Christ, not some go-nowhere addiction.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

God is not a liar and will nor be mocked. He asks you to believe in him and all things will come to you in his time, not your time but his. He never wanted us to fear life but to embrace it. He gave us power and love and a sound mind. All we have to do is reach out and gab hold of it. The Lord will do the rest.