God can instantaneously demolish any seemingly unassailable stronghold we may harbor or suffer. Or sometimes it takes more time in accordance with our cooperation, or failure to cooperate, with his divine will for our precious lives. In the midst of enduring addiction, we might seem utterly hopeless and defeated. Addicts who don't even acknowledge, and are hence not desirous of profuse worship of and service to the One True God, are at an even greater loss to establish an anchor of strength and aspiration. Perhaps their human will to live and indomitable spirit that God gifted them, whether they know it or not, can inspire. Yes, unbelievers have to consistently borrow from the Christian worldview and God's grace and riches to even continue to breathe or speak or move, knowingly or not. Those of us who DO have faith and trust in a benevolent God of love and grace, while maintaining stubborn strongholds, likewise, in the eye of the hurricane, feel an urgent inability to sustainably overcome. Yes, even with the help of God it feels. However, our feelings, especially within the realm of addiction's lies and low blows, can decidedly deceive and foster standstills. When we aren't embracing and expatiating scripture and God's view of humanity, all we're holding are opinions or emotions, ones that ofttimes detectably delude. In other words, God gets very descriptive about his remarkable and heartwarming love for mankind and our stupendous value to him within the gift of his infallible and inspired word. Your words to yourself in your darkest thoughts, sometimes based in shame and self pity, when you're a mess, stressed, or depressed, just simply aren't reliable! So perk up buttercup! Way easier said than done, I know. You are fearfully and wonderfully made my dear. I'm sending a gigantic virtual hug and cheek kiss. You are valuable and loved. (John 3:16, 1 John 4:19, Psalm 139:14, Luke 12:7)
Perhaps you've reached the point where concerning evidence would suggest rock bottom has been hit repeatedly. Or you're detrimentally reaping what you've regrettably sewn. Often, it isn't until we've reached the tail end of ourselves, fed up and disgusted by our own consistent choices and actions, that God can be found to the extent we all need him!
As I write all this, I'm not diminishing the need for some people to seek professional or secular help, especially if it means saving your life. Such assistance can be of tremendous value when coping with and treating the disease of addiction. In addition to sometimes life saving medical assistance, integral information about and therapeutic treatment of your disease can be worthwhile tools to utilize when needed. Sanity, hope, and breath must be maintained by any healthy means necessary.
There is only one rock of salvation though wherein one can rest his weary head on something real, pure, and everlasting. Only one anchor and surety. Not only for addicts, but every single homo sapien. We must all deny our flesh and feed our spirit to reap both immediate and eternal rewards. We must all be made new, deny ourselves, and carry our crosses, caring more attentively to God's will for us in Christ than to our own if we ever hope to prosper meaningfully in this life and bountifully in the next unto infinity!
It only makes sense that the creator of our very lives knows what's best for us. He's love, absolutely and assuredly and magnanimously, but he's also a wise disciplinarian who knows perfectly well that suffering builds character, empathy, and strength! He is perfectly just, just like you would desire a wordly judge to be, not excusing egregious wrongdoing but rather granting it it's fair recompense.
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Heb. 12:11)
Further, examine:
"For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways." (Rom 11:32-36)
It might take some time, that's perhaps painful and seemingly unbearable, to teach us what we need to learn. Even earthly fathers understand that sometimes their children must suffer the wearying consequences of a lengthy ordeal of poor decisions in order to learn and grow. Growth pangs, though annoying and antagonizing, are beneficial and catalyzing, ultimately. I could compare the time spent in a destructible life-shaking stronghold or addiction to time spent in this wicked corrupt world. Believers know full well a benevolent majestic kingdom is assured and on the horizon, but could never frankly be wholeheartedly chockful of gratitude, appreciation and love for it's majesty if we had not first suffered this evil system's travesties. Similarly, your deliverance from your addiction is assured and on the horizon if you're written in the Lamb's book of life, but you could never appreciate how wonderful freedom from deathly strongholds truly is unless you first felt their tragedy, destruction, and horror. Once delivered, the sighs of relief and ubiquitous gratitude would flourish and overflow. The desire to return to the travesty could not eclipse the urge to cling to the majesty! Aka, the deliverance.
Jesus said about a sinful woman who kissed his feet:
"I tell you, her sins--and they are many--have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."
Prodigal children are always gonna be the most grateful, the weepiest, the most wholehearted servants! The ones bursting with humility and indebtedness!
We are all wretched sinners in need of grace and deliverance. In fact, for every horrendous habit or addiction you have, there are myriads of others who would tell you how tragically relatable your woeful story is! Born in sin, we're all doomed scum without a flawless redeemer such as that Christ was and is. Every single one of us can be a champion and conqueror in our salvific Lord! The bible's main story is so profusely beautiful and glorious that if your heart isn't affected, perhaps you're too full of yourself, and humility would be the best elixir.
Some good news is that:
"We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15, 16)
Oh my gosh! How beautiful is that! Yeshua Hamashiach, a dazzling jewel of a man, constantly sacrificed himself for others, emptied himself by fasting and insistent prayer so he could be chockful of his father's spirit, and relied heavily on God and his own admirable determined stance to perfectly obey Him to pull him through temptations so that he could be the ultimate death conqueror! But boy, did he suffer! We are called to suffer too. We certainly are no better, though it could be said we're markedly worse. Christ denied himself when he was hungry, in pain, etc. He constantly fed his spirit instead of his flesh. That's a key to turn your wrecked life around! If he can suffer and withstand the undeserved humiliation, torture, and murder at the cross, then you can undoubtedly suffer well earned withdrawals and whatever else you're reaping from what you've sewn. I know at some point a chemical dependency was established and that your entire mind and body became dependent, but I also know that:
God is stronger than strongholds, more powerful and potent than addictions, and easily more praiseworthy than our own feeble efforts to singlehandedly overcome, boasting in ourselves! Boast in God. HE is the answer to every conundrum and question humans harbor.
I know recovery is beyond difficult and harrowing, but faith and trust in God can make it manageable. Our suffering next to Christ's is child's play, like a cat next to tiger, so with that perspective in mind, complaining becomes less insistent. Withdrawals and pangs become more bearable.
"As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." (Proverbs 26:11)
Every time we willfully sin, we're disrespecting and dishonoring Christ's remarkable poignant sacrifice, crucifying him afresh. It is therefore integral and behooves us urgently to wholeheartedly repent and serve, instead of making excuses and wallowing. Yes, you might have a disease. Which means it's treatable! Seek help at all costs, or the price you end up paying may even be as costly as your sanity, health, and/or precious life. If you're stuck in a pattern of shame and self loathing, throw your burdens and anxieties to God!
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7)
I can personally attest to these truths. The most pronounced time was when I was in the ICU many years ago after a suicide attempt. I almost lost my liver due to an overdose, and I took it to God urgently and incessantly. I have never felt such peace in my life. I knew that whatever happened, I could be content because God is in control. I felt the fruits of the spirit like I never had before and haven't since. My situation was tragic, but my experience was beautiful. I wouldn't trade my mistakes for anything because they have necessitated my urgent desire for God and the profound gratitude I now have in spades! I would never downplay your difficulties as an addict myself who's suffered the same and reaped the consequences abundantly. I know all about it my friend. I also know:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." (1 Cor. 10:13)
While in the garden of Gethsemane before his crucification, Christ "prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood." (Luke 22:44)
If he can overcome, so can you. The same power that sustained him in life and death and raised him from the dead resides in those who exercise faith. Exercising implies action though, so even if you're crawling and bawling, look up and work with God's spirit to reform and refashion your life. He is close to the broken hearted, so accept that phenomenal blessing and draw as close to him as you would a spouse. No, far closer.
I'm sure you've heard about the fight of the two wolves, a Native American parable: It's as follows:
"An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
For me, this elucidates the constant battle a Christian has between his flesh and spirit. Whichever one you feed will win. Make conscientious choices, my friends. Ones that uphold the integrity and principles a Christian should possess. Maintaining self destruction and being overcome by sin instead of overcoming is not a viable option for a lamb of God and a royal child of the King of Kings. Principle above personality. Priority over feelings.
You can either be a slave to flesh and sin or God's spirit and righteousness. It's glaringly apparent the more noble, beneficial, healthy, and praiseworthy choice! Oft times, when we're overcome with addiction, we allow it to define us instead of seeking God to refine us. Truth is, though, that we direly need to seek and find our identity in Christ. For it is only in him that we can understand our value and reap eternal life. To loosely quote something I read in a book once:
When Christ's life enters into us, it enables us to enter into his.
And the only way he will do that is if your temple is open to him instead of life destroying chemicals and debaucheries. Don't renounce your value by accepting self harm and habits amounting to worthlessness when extraordinary healing and a kingdom indescribably worthwhile awaits.
Your journey forth will not be easy, but enduring comes with a phenomenal promise. Our thorns and weaknesses necessitate a reliance upon and appreciation for God those with easier lives and lack of utter hardship could only imagine. In other words, our thorns come with an undying rose that lessens the pain, or that at least makes it bearable, providing contentment despite circumstance.
Examine:
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
When you're free from bondage, you're going to be blessed with a love for God so profound and all-consuming that it will feel like life's greatest gift, and in fact it is one of them. If it weren't for the thorns we've either sewn or been handed, we might lose that urgency for dependence upon our holy father through Christ and our humility, which is always a requirement for exaltation. We are blessed beyond description, no matter the war wounds, so abandon the flesh's demands and lies for God's gifts and truths.
Perhaps you've reached the point where concerning evidence would suggest rock bottom has been hit repeatedly. Or you're detrimentally reaping what you've regrettably sewn. Often, it isn't until we've reached the tail end of ourselves, fed up and disgusted by our own consistent choices and actions, that God can be found to the extent we all need him!
As I write all this, I'm not diminishing the need for some people to seek professional or secular help, especially if it means saving your life. Such assistance can be of tremendous value when coping with and treating the disease of addiction. In addition to sometimes life saving medical assistance, integral information about and therapeutic treatment of your disease can be worthwhile tools to utilize when needed. Sanity, hope, and breath must be maintained by any healthy means necessary.
There is only one rock of salvation though wherein one can rest his weary head on something real, pure, and everlasting. Only one anchor and surety. Not only for addicts, but every single homo sapien. We must all deny our flesh and feed our spirit to reap both immediate and eternal rewards. We must all be made new, deny ourselves, and carry our crosses, caring more attentively to God's will for us in Christ than to our own if we ever hope to prosper meaningfully in this life and bountifully in the next unto infinity!
It only makes sense that the creator of our very lives knows what's best for us. He's love, absolutely and assuredly and magnanimously, but he's also a wise disciplinarian who knows perfectly well that suffering builds character, empathy, and strength! He is perfectly just, just like you would desire a wordly judge to be, not excusing egregious wrongdoing but rather granting it it's fair recompense.
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Heb. 12:11)
Further, examine:
"For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways." (Rom 11:32-36)
It might take some time, that's perhaps painful and seemingly unbearable, to teach us what we need to learn. Even earthly fathers understand that sometimes their children must suffer the wearying consequences of a lengthy ordeal of poor decisions in order to learn and grow. Growth pangs, though annoying and antagonizing, are beneficial and catalyzing, ultimately. I could compare the time spent in a destructible life-shaking stronghold or addiction to time spent in this wicked corrupt world. Believers know full well a benevolent majestic kingdom is assured and on the horizon, but could never frankly be wholeheartedly chockful of gratitude, appreciation and love for it's majesty if we had not first suffered this evil system's travesties. Similarly, your deliverance from your addiction is assured and on the horizon if you're written in the Lamb's book of life, but you could never appreciate how wonderful freedom from deathly strongholds truly is unless you first felt their tragedy, destruction, and horror. Once delivered, the sighs of relief and ubiquitous gratitude would flourish and overflow. The desire to return to the travesty could not eclipse the urge to cling to the majesty! Aka, the deliverance.
Jesus said about a sinful woman who kissed his feet:
"I tell you, her sins--and they are many--have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."
Prodigal children are always gonna be the most grateful, the weepiest, the most wholehearted servants! The ones bursting with humility and indebtedness!
We are all wretched sinners in need of grace and deliverance. In fact, for every horrendous habit or addiction you have, there are myriads of others who would tell you how tragically relatable your woeful story is! Born in sin, we're all doomed scum without a flawless redeemer such as that Christ was and is. Every single one of us can be a champion and conqueror in our salvific Lord! The bible's main story is so profusely beautiful and glorious that if your heart isn't affected, perhaps you're too full of yourself, and humility would be the best elixir.
Some good news is that:
"We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15, 16)
Oh my gosh! How beautiful is that! Yeshua Hamashiach, a dazzling jewel of a man, constantly sacrificed himself for others, emptied himself by fasting and insistent prayer so he could be chockful of his father's spirit, and relied heavily on God and his own admirable determined stance to perfectly obey Him to pull him through temptations so that he could be the ultimate death conqueror! But boy, did he suffer! We are called to suffer too. We certainly are no better, though it could be said we're markedly worse. Christ denied himself when he was hungry, in pain, etc. He constantly fed his spirit instead of his flesh. That's a key to turn your wrecked life around! If he can suffer and withstand the undeserved humiliation, torture, and murder at the cross, then you can undoubtedly suffer well earned withdrawals and whatever else you're reaping from what you've sewn. I know at some point a chemical dependency was established and that your entire mind and body became dependent, but I also know that:
God is stronger than strongholds, more powerful and potent than addictions, and easily more praiseworthy than our own feeble efforts to singlehandedly overcome, boasting in ourselves! Boast in God. HE is the answer to every conundrum and question humans harbor.
I know recovery is beyond difficult and harrowing, but faith and trust in God can make it manageable. Our suffering next to Christ's is child's play, like a cat next to tiger, so with that perspective in mind, complaining becomes less insistent. Withdrawals and pangs become more bearable.
"As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." (Proverbs 26:11)
Every time we willfully sin, we're disrespecting and dishonoring Christ's remarkable poignant sacrifice, crucifying him afresh. It is therefore integral and behooves us urgently to wholeheartedly repent and serve, instead of making excuses and wallowing. Yes, you might have a disease. Which means it's treatable! Seek help at all costs, or the price you end up paying may even be as costly as your sanity, health, and/or precious life. If you're stuck in a pattern of shame and self loathing, throw your burdens and anxieties to God!
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7)
I can personally attest to these truths. The most pronounced time was when I was in the ICU many years ago after a suicide attempt. I almost lost my liver due to an overdose, and I took it to God urgently and incessantly. I have never felt such peace in my life. I knew that whatever happened, I could be content because God is in control. I felt the fruits of the spirit like I never had before and haven't since. My situation was tragic, but my experience was beautiful. I wouldn't trade my mistakes for anything because they have necessitated my urgent desire for God and the profound gratitude I now have in spades! I would never downplay your difficulties as an addict myself who's suffered the same and reaped the consequences abundantly. I know all about it my friend. I also know:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." (1 Cor. 10:13)
While in the garden of Gethsemane before his crucification, Christ "prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood." (Luke 22:44)
If he can overcome, so can you. The same power that sustained him in life and death and raised him from the dead resides in those who exercise faith. Exercising implies action though, so even if you're crawling and bawling, look up and work with God's spirit to reform and refashion your life. He is close to the broken hearted, so accept that phenomenal blessing and draw as close to him as you would a spouse. No, far closer.
I'm sure you've heard about the fight of the two wolves, a Native American parable: It's as follows:
"An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
For me, this elucidates the constant battle a Christian has between his flesh and spirit. Whichever one you feed will win. Make conscientious choices, my friends. Ones that uphold the integrity and principles a Christian should possess. Maintaining self destruction and being overcome by sin instead of overcoming is not a viable option for a lamb of God and a royal child of the King of Kings. Principle above personality. Priority over feelings.
You can either be a slave to flesh and sin or God's spirit and righteousness. It's glaringly apparent the more noble, beneficial, healthy, and praiseworthy choice! Oft times, when we're overcome with addiction, we allow it to define us instead of seeking God to refine us. Truth is, though, that we direly need to seek and find our identity in Christ. For it is only in him that we can understand our value and reap eternal life. To loosely quote something I read in a book once:
When Christ's life enters into us, it enables us to enter into his.
And the only way he will do that is if your temple is open to him instead of life destroying chemicals and debaucheries. Don't renounce your value by accepting self harm and habits amounting to worthlessness when extraordinary healing and a kingdom indescribably worthwhile awaits.
Your journey forth will not be easy, but enduring comes with a phenomenal promise. Our thorns and weaknesses necessitate a reliance upon and appreciation for God those with easier lives and lack of utter hardship could only imagine. In other words, our thorns come with an undying rose that lessens the pain, or that at least makes it bearable, providing contentment despite circumstance.
Examine:
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
When you're free from bondage, you're going to be blessed with a love for God so profound and all-consuming that it will feel like life's greatest gift, and in fact it is one of them. If it weren't for the thorns we've either sewn or been handed, we might lose that urgency for dependence upon our holy father through Christ and our humility, which is always a requirement for exaltation. We are blessed beyond description, no matter the war wounds, so abandon the flesh's demands and lies for God's gifts and truths.
"Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ." (Phil. 3:8)
Yes,
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)
Yes,
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)
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