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| Reinhold Niebuhr |
“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)
Today marks two major milestones in my life…my 10 year wedding anniversary (I love you, baby!) and my 8 month divorce from cigarettes (Good riddance, you life sucking addiction!)
Lies! That’s what addictions are and they are straight from the devil because, honestly, how else can you explain the insanity of doing something that...
- kills
- controls
- drives a wedge between yourself and your spouse
- negatively influences and impacts your children, family and friends
- drains your finances
- compromises your job
- corrupts your life and causes strive, fear and turmoil
- and consistently separates you from a holy God
“Don’t worry about all that stuff. It doesn’t really matter. It’s not really a sin. You’re not hurting anybody. Nobody even really knows. Plus, I’m not all that bad. Other people do me all the time. You should be able to do what you want and you want me, right? I make you feel good. There’s nothing wrong in that. I’ve always been here for you. I’m your best friend. You can’t live without me. You can’t cope with life without me. Who will you turn to?”
I’ve been there before lots of times with cigarettes (and other addictions) and have even mustered up the willpower to quit, one time for almost a year.
But you know what? You can’t truly beat addiction without God. Tweet this!
Because that same self that wants to quit is the same self that wants to keep doing it and it takes God to remove that desire.
If you prayed right now for God to remove the desire for that addiction He will answer that prayer and your head is gonna spin at how quickly and completely God will remove that life sucking addiction from your life. When I prayed that prayer 8 months ago, I tested God to see if He’d really answered my prayer…I tried to smoke and (1) it tasted awful and (2) I felt like Jesus was sitting right beside me in my car, looking at me with the saddest puppy dog eyes you’ve ever seen in your life and my heart was so heavy with the weight of his disappointment that I couldn’t throw that cigarette away fast enough! And I haven’t picked one back up since.
Some people might say that I have an addictive personality but I like to call it the spiritual gift of zeal (as a sweet friend tagged it the other day).
It’s my God-given desire to jump in with two feet, guns a-blazing, throwing caution to the wind, doing it on a large scale, louder, bigger, and better. My zeal begs the question, “If one is good, then 10 must be better, right?”
But, like all of our spiritual gifts, if we don’t lay them at Jesus feet, give Him complete control of them, constantly pray for guidance, keep in the Word, surround ourselves with Godly people…the devil will try to get us to use our gift for him. Tweet this!
And though our God is mightier than the devil, He gives us a choice in how we use those gifts or if we even use them at all. Tweet this!
My challenge to you today is to take that unhealthy addiction - pornography, drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, whatever it is - and give it to God. He promises to replace it with something more fulfilling that gives you...
- freedom
- enhances your life
- builds unity between yourself and your spouse
- positively influences and impacts your children, family and friends
- bolsters your finances
- improves your job
- brings joy to your life and causes peace, love and civility
- and consistently draws you closer to Him
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8 (NLT)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NIV)
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