Busting the Hell Out of Addictions
My goal over the next few weeks is to help you break the power of Satan in your life. To break the chains that hold you and pull down the walls that stop you from fulfilling all you can be in the Lord.
Satan’s snares come in many forms…but most common to us; his snares come in the form of addictions.
Addictions to things like cigarettes, and alcohol, drugs or sex, overeating and overspending keep us bound up, tied down. When we get into that condition, we cannot experience God’s freedom found in Christ.
Ga 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Ga 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
How do addictions come?
After spending years studying the issue and counseling addicts, I can tell you that addictions are very complex. Yet, I also know that many people who engage in harmful behavior (even if they would not be clinically diagnosed as an addict) do so as a result of unresolved family trauma.
Unresolved family trauma is at the root of most major life conflicts facing individuals and families. Addictions, personal dysfunction, relationship conflicts, divorce, and abusive behaviors often find their origins in a painful family history. All families and individuals encounter trauma at some point in their lives; the way we handle trauma often determines how it will affect our lives and our family’s life for years—or generations—to come. When an individual or family does not seek to heal these wounds, the legacy of trauma is often passed on to the next generation in varying degrees.
What are some addictions that are common today?
o Alcoholism and drug addiction, including addiction to prescription medications.
o Workaholism, as seen in long hours, extended and/or numerous business trips, many hours working at home and during vacations, work preoccupation, over-involvement in outside interests such as clubs, politics, religion, or sports.
o Sex addictions, including Internet pornography or cyber relationships, affairs, pornography, pedophilia, prostitution, chronic masturbation.
o Relationship addictions involve an adult engaging in multiple romantic relationships, often choosing people who are incapable of commitment. This tends to take a cyclical form, where partners who all share similar characteristics (usually negative) are recycled in and out of a person’s life.
o Rage addiction is a pattern where anger and explosive rage are a dominant method of controlling relationships and dealing with life stress.
o Eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia, over-eating, use of food as a means of controlling emotions, and hording of food.
o Compulsive exercise includes driven excessive exercise (at times combined with eating disorders).
o Smoking and other tobacco use.
o Money addictions include parental overspending, gambling, or hording of finances.
o Media addiction includes situations where overuse of the computer, games, television, or reading becomes an avenue of escaping life stresses and responsibilities.
Take a look at this verse in the bible:
2Co 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds (fortress, or anything in which one relies)
- Addictions start out as seemingly good, or entertaining or just fun, but they begin to consume you and the devil begins to build his fortress around you.
- Brick by brick, drink after drink…smoke after smoke…charge after charge…bad movie after bad movie…these things begin to dominate your thinking…and eventually your life.
- Finally, the devil has used you and your bad habit to build a wall around you, so that you are not able to fulfill God’s best for your life.
- Thankfully, that verse tells us that God gives us weapons to destroy those strongholds.
There are three common weapons that we use:
1. Will Power
- The ability to choose is a wonderful thing…except when you choose wrong
- One of the famous verses in the bible is a great example of our ability to choose:
Joshua 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
De 30:19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
2. Others Around You
- God has given us friends, mentors, and spouses because, as a people, we need community. Isolation only feeds the secrecy, lies, and shame that have kept us from realizing our true design for fellowship with others.
- Talk about accountability
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
- Why does James tell us to confess our faults to one another…the chapter is on prayer…he wants us to talk to each other about our weaknesses so that they will pray for us.
Romans 15:1 “ We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbour for his good, to build him up.”
3. Full Submission to God
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
