Since everyone has a human nature that sins, everyone has a sin nature. We all have addictions – many kinds, and another one, too!
A lifelong, close friend – Leroy Wyatt (now with the Lord), confided in me often – just about every time we got together. The one statement I remember most of all was this:
“Chancey (my friends growing up called me Chancey – my given first name included the letter “U,” but I did not like Chauncey and was therefore known in school as Chancey), Leroy said, “relationships are forsaken in favor of the next drink, and the eyes of denial are blind and defensive.” Not bad for a recovering alcoholic. Leroy was no dummy when it came to knowing himself, but it took 30 years – thirty years of alcohol abuse before he got to a point where he hated what he had become.
Through the years Leroy would vent to me, and one time he explained that, “I was actually a ‘mean’ drinker, but never attacked anyone, never hurt my wife or child physically… just became rude and my attitude arrogant. I drank when I came home from work during the week, and I drank on weekends. Drinking relaxed me until I drank too much, then I became angry. Looking back, my drinking was a temporary fix for the anger I held inside, as well as the stresses from my job. Chancey,” he went on, “when I quit drinking, the stress and anger seemed to gradually go away. Oh, I still complain about everything, but nothing like I used to.”
Leroy said he “started with social drinking with family and friends usually on weekends.” Eventually, he was drinking every day.
After years of alcoholism, Leroy decided he had a problem – a dependency he could not control. He decided to go to AA one day, and the Lord was waiting for him. The Lord is waiting for you, too. THE LORD HAS A PLAN! Leroy received Christ as his Savior at AA meetings.
The Holy Spirit convicted Leroy and suddenly he could see the hardship and the price that his family had to pay for his alcoholism. He never drank again! Praise the Lord!
For many years Leroy led AA meetings and told his story, and he always began with: “Hi, I’m Lee Wyatt and I’m an alcoholic.” Many men were able to stop drinking. Many accepted Christ. But, many remained drinkers until drinking took their lives.
I lost my friend October 6th, 2014, the day before my birthday. Then, a member of our church called the VA Medical Center where I was being kept alive by blood transfusion, and had been since July 2, 2014. That prayer warrior was David Updegrove, President of a large CPA firm in Northern Virginia. He became a close friend – the LORD replaced Leroy in my life.
All right, back to our study:
As stated above: Everyone sins! Sin is who we are by our very nature, which by the way, resides in our flesh. The flesh is prone to addictions of all kinds. We all (no exceptions) have addictions – “many kinds, and another one, too!” Overeating, lying, deceiving, judging others, gossiping, talking behind another person’s back, coveting, jealousy, gambling, bullying, lusting, worry…
The list is quite large. These traits reveal an inward problem. Complexes brought on by the details of life and the inability to handle life in the flesh is slavery of one kind or another to our flesh.
Think about your own life; get to know all of your addictions. There are probably more than you think. Find them all through an honest self-evaluation. Write them down, secretly. Then, get to work conquering them through the power of God and God’s own Holy Scriptures. Find God’s promises to you; memorize the verses so they are always with you, ready to apply to your life, to your circumstances, and to your addictions. Rely upon Him to help you. Learn to say “no“ to yourself. It’s time to grow up and “put away childish things.”
“Discipline yourself, so that other people don’t have to.”
Nearly everyone in our society is, has been, or will be, directly or indirectly affected by drugs and alcohol.
Addiction separates the addict from reality. Separated from reality, the addict lives in denial. Denial is the defense mechanism of addiction – an escape to counterfeit happiness, and from anger or even weakness – the inability to handle life, desertion from reality – a denial of Truth. An unsatisfied need, a choice to fill the need by drugs or alcohol or nicotine, or whatever.
“When we deny our problems, we have successfully failed.” – C. S. Craig
“Addiction is more than a habit – it is destructive! It is actually a battle for the soul’s of humanity!” – C. S. Craig
Drug and alcohol addiction is an extension of the angelic conflict, which is spiritual warfare that is going on all around the world, all around us – an unending battle between good and evil. Satan and demons are behind the drug assault on mankind. Satan uses drugs and alcohol and other forms of escape-addiction to steal the souls of millions of unsuspecting people, many of whom are looking for relief and/or belief in all the wrong places. Listen, if God is not enough to satisfy your longings, addiction certainly is NOT.
We Are All Disobedient
We are, by nature, people who chose to do both wrong and right. For the most part, many find enjoyment, even a sense of entitlement, in doing so.
“Folly can be fun, for whom follies please!” – C. S. Craig
“Addiction is an act of submission of the will to the demands of the flesh.” – C. S. Craig
Addiction is the act of forsaking! Addiction averts reality. Addiction becomes another reality, one of entrapment. Addictions are a counterfeit reality! When we escape from reality, we replace reality with a counterfeit. You cannot escape from yourself. You cannot escape from God. The appetites of mankind are insatiable.
Addiction of any type replaces a proper relationship with God. When we think and act independently of God, the tendency of mankind is to find another answer, another relationship. Unfortunately, many choose addictive substances.
How often do you choose to think independently of God? When we choose addiction, we choose to abandon our commitments, our responsibilities, our families, and especially God. Independence from God can leave us slaves to our flesh. The most devastating addiction in America is sugar (sweet stuff, snacks) and it’s in everything. Read your food labels, notice the added sugars, the high fructose corn syrup, the enriched flour (which is devastatingly-horrible stuff), etc. Quit buying and consuming foods designed to kill you.
Meet God. He is waiting, just for you, at the cross.
“No one is an expert if everybody is an expert.” – C. S. Craig
If you have “everything under control” then God is not in control, and you have many problems that God cannot help you with, such as drug or alcohol abuse, etc. Overindulgence needs real power to conquer it, and this would be God’s Holy Spirit powering your thinking. Counterfeit thinking leaves God out of the equations of life. God is more powerful than the flesh.
Humanity must realize our fleshly appetites are destroying our lives.
Other than the Word, excess of anything is not good, especially if it becomes addictive. The flesh has many appetites!
The penalty of thinking apart from God is more than we can pay. Thinking independently of God was the first sin by Adam, and in eternity past, by lucifer, who became satan when he sinned or rebelled. Thinking independently of God is rebellion. Rebellion results in many of life’s tragedies, and eventual death (Genesis 2:16, 17).
Choose to follow Jesus Christ, as Christ holds all the right answers for every problem we face or ever will face.
“Be addicted to God’s Word! The Bible is the Mind of Christ and His Mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
– C. S. Craig
Life is a terrible thing to waste, and an eternity separated from God is a terrible thing. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Christ died on our cross so we don’t have to! The Holy Spirit was given to help us in the warfare of life in the devil’s world. Addiction is a battle for your soul!
God gave the Holy Spirit to indwell us with power from on High. We need this Higher Power to stand against the things of the devil’s world, and to stand against our own personal addictions.
Are you prepared to die? Then be prepared to live! Live with God in fields of grace. Trust (believe in) Christ right now (John 3:15-18,36; Roman 5:8).
Find a good Bible teaching church and tell the pastor you have trusted in Christ and need help to live life in Christ and not the world. Attend regularly. May God richly bless you.
Happy Studying in Fields of Grace.
With all this in mind, you may wish to proceed to our related study, The Sharp Edges Of Faith.