“New Ways of Seeing and Walking Free” Part 2

 “Addicted to God” New Ways of Seeing and Walking Free Part 2 “The unfolding of Your words gives life; it gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130) The world uses only one metaphor to describe our struggle with addiction: “disease.” But the world does not say, “Addiction is like disease.” The world says, “Addiction is disease,” which is neither theologically nor medically correct.  To truly “recover” from addiction, sinful addiction must be replaced with holy addiction, for addiction is merely a perverted form of worship. Even organizations like AA confess that addiction is a “spiritual struggle that needs spiritual healing.” The word “disease” certainly does describe how addiction makes us feel controlled by something, but it omits that the control of addiction is a voluntary enslavement by the addict. The Bible gives us five metaphors to describe addictive behavior: idolatry, adultery, foolishness, attacks by a wild beast, and disease. One of the most common biblical pictures of the human condition, both when we are in control and when we are out of control, is that of idolatry. When we turn to something other than God to provide things only God can provide, we are stepping outside the boundaries of His Kingdom to look for blessings elsewhere, and this is idolatry. The basic story line of the entire Old Testament is about people who find idolatry irresistible. And so, eventually God sends His Son Jesus to rescue His people out of their enslaving practices. This is why all sin is summarized as idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:23; Ephesians 5:5). Though Old Testament idols were visible, manmade statues, it was always about “idols of the heart” (Ezekiel 14:3). 1 John closes with the words, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” John never mentions visible idols, but only “the cravings of the sinful man, the lusts of the eyes, and the boastings of what man has and does.” John is concerned with the “unseen Baals of the heart.” Here is a very important point in a biblical view of addiction: Scripture permits us to broaden the definition of idolatry so that it includes anything on which we set our affections and indulge in as an excessive and sinful attachment. This is why, for instance, the bottle that the drunkard sees is not the whole problem, it is what he is longing for in his heart, what he is attached to more than God. And so idolatry includes anything we worship: the lust for pleasure, respect, love, power, control, comfort, escape, freedom from pain, etc. And here is a liberating thought: the problem is not outside of us, located in a liquor store or on the internet; the problem is within us. Alcohol and drugs are essentially satisfiers of deeper idols. The problem is not the idolatrous substance, but the false worship of the heart. The good news is that if the problem is worship-related, the cure is worship-related too! To overcome, the addict needs a “worship-replacement program.” Healing for the addict begins with learning how to properly worship God with all his “heart, soul, mind, and strength.” We’re not saying this relearning is easy, but we are saying that “with God all things are possible.” Jesus Christ has made it so.  More next time…


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