Addictions

        One evening I picked up my daughter’s book off the floor to check it out and see what she was reading.  It was a well written piece that was very descriptive of the characters and their lives.  One chapter led to another and soon I couldn’t put the book down.  When I finished the book it was early morning (over 600 pages) and I had the usual school day start to attend to.  Needless to say, I was exhausted by noon.

 

       Growing up in the suburbs I didn’t see a lot of down-on-their-luck people like in the city, and though the problems were there, it was much more concealed.  There were alcoholics and drug users as well as those addicted to prescription drugs, but they were hidden behind the exteriors of upstanding, ‘respectable’ people.  We all target addictions like that as unhealthy and therefore bad addictions, but what about ones like I mentioned above?  Reading had become an addiction for me.  If I picked up a book, I couldn’t put it down until it was done.

       Computer games and television have also surfaced time and again to monopolize my time.  Are any of these things bad per se?  Not really in and of themselves (having said this, just what is the content of what we are watching/ playing?), but the amount of time we spend consumed by them indicates where are hearts are.  “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Mt. 6:21) 

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself.  Lk. 10:27 ISV

                                                                      (all scriptures in this post are from this version)

       If all my heart is the Lord’s, then why is it easier for me to be reading, playing games or watching T.V. than to be spending time with Him first… or doing the tasks He has called me to do?  What is this compulsion we (mankind) have towards anything but God?  Where does it come from?

…The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.  Mt. 26:41

Indeed, all of us once behaved like them in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and senses…  Eph. 2:3

 (believers-) who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Rom. 8:4

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  To set our minds on the flesh leads to death, but to set our minds on the Spirit leads to life and peace. Rom. 8:5,6

Promising them freedom, they themselves are slaves to depravity, for a person is a slave to whatever conquers him. 2Pt. 2:19

       All our addictions have us in the bondage of slavery which the Lord came to set us free of (Is. 61:1).  Whether it be texting, talking on your cell, playing computer games or facebook-ing, watching T.V., having all the latest gadgets or electronic devices, shopping, buying clothes or gifts, sports, food/ eating, and on and on, any and all things that we spend more time on than with God must be questioned.  Am I addicted?  Am I indulging my flesh or my Spirit?  Is this activity feeding my Spirit, or my fleshly pleasures?

       We are supposed to live by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) for if we live by the flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we die to the flesh, we will live (Rom. 8:13).  Those who live by the flesh are in slavery/ bondage (Rom. 8:15) and if we continue to sow to our flesh, we will reap to the flesh (Gal. 6:8) instead of the spirit.  And judgment awaits for “those who satisfy their flesh by indulging in its passions…” (2Pt. 2:10)

       This has been difficult for me to write about because I still struggle with my particular addictions thirty years-ish after becoming a Christian.  When I was young I realized that a reformed alcoholic should never touch even one drink again or the probability was high they would loose control.  I consider that wisdom now in my own life and how it applies to me.  In the end I must question myself: is the Lord my treasure, or not?

For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what he deserves for what he has done in his body, whether good or worthless.  2Cor. 5:10

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. 

Gal. 5:24

Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him. For everything that is in the world-the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance-is not from the Father but is from the world.

1Jn. 2:15,16

Do we want slavery…    or freedom?