Afflicting Addictions

by Sheila Lipsey

June 14, 2010

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?  Galatians 5:7 (NIV) 

Often times, like sin, we try to put addictions into categories--bad addictions, good addictions, little addictions, big addictions.  We try to "dress it up" and call it by more pleasing a name instead of what it really is.  But the truth is that this old flesh of ours is wicked because we were all born with a terrible, nasty sin nature.  Addictions afflict us by eating away at our spirit, stunting our spiritual growth and maturity.  When we become addicts to worldly things, people and situations we can lose focus on what really does matter.  Some of you are sitting on a pew Sunday after Sunday, professing to know God while trying to prove to others that you are a good "church-going Christian" when really you have an Afflicting Addiction to pleasing man rather than the Almighty God.  Gluttony, sexual immorality, drug use, idolatry, love of money over God, are just a few Afflicting Addictions.

If you find yourself in despair, wallowing in the gutter of life, feeling as if there is no hope, let me tell you now that God is yet with you.  He is able to rescue you from all of the strongholds in your life that keep you away from Him.  He is able to rescue you from Afflicting Addictions that keep you at a standstill and cause you to become stagnated in life. A fellow evangelist friend of mine told me that when some of us become afflicted by addictions we find ourselves blaming everything and everybody; even condemning ourselves when oft times our hindrance is right before our very eyes.   She said, "We live with it, bathe it, perfume it, make it up, dress it down, pamper it and over feed it.  That means that we feed our flesh most anything that it desires such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, legal and illegal, untimely purchases, laziness, anger, and a host of others things. 

My friends, are you afflicted by some addiction?  Is it keeping you bound, bogged down, depressed, and stressed?  Is it making you feel as if you are not worthy, or is it so subtle that you don't even know it's there?  It's time to look upward.  Our God is a non-condemning, all forgiving God who cares for us in our mess, during our mess, and through our mess.  Remember, no matter what Afflicting Addiction is in your life, God is a habit breaker.  Place your total trust in Him.  For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help (Psalms 72:12 NIV).

We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 The Message Bible).