BREAKING THE CYCLE OF ADDICTION

ADDICTIONS

Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control.


Many people are not aware of the more subtle addictions, the addictions that are often so covert and pervasive that they are as invisible to us as the air we breathe. Yet these addictions may be impacting us negatively as much as the more overt addictions. Many people are aware of the fact that addictions are used to avoid pain, and most of us are aware of the common addictions: food, alcohol, drugs, gambling, TV, spending, work, sex, rage and so on. Most people, however, are not aware of the more subtle addictions, the addictions that are often so covert and pervasive that they are as invisible to us as the air we breathe. Yet these addictions may be impacting us negatively as much as the more overt addictions.
Take Sam, for example. Sam is the kind of person who ends up doing everything, both at home and at work. Sam works much harder in his retail business than either of his two partners, and often feels overwhelmed by the amount of work he has to do. On weekends, he ends up doing a lot of work around the house, even though he has two strong teenagers who could be helping out. Even when others offer to help, Sam turns them down. Sam is devoted to being a "nice guy" and caretaking others - doing for others what they need to be doing for themselves. On a deeper level, he is always trying to control how others' perceive him. He wants them to see him as a caring person and often feels victimized when others do not give him the approval he seeks. Then, when others react to his attempts to control how they feel about him with irritation or withdrawal, Sam is angry that they are not approving of him. When he is really upset, he will get drunk. He will often obsessively ruminate about how unjust his wife is or his partners are. If his wife wants to explore their problems, Sam goes into defending, explaining and resisting, stating that she is just trying to control him. When nothing else works, Sam will withdraw.
There are many addictions going on here. The more overt ones are work, anger and drinking. Sam is also addicted to approval, to controlling how others see him through caretaking, to being a victim and blaming others for his misery, to obsessive thinking (ruminating), to defending, explaining, resisting, and withdrawing. All of these addictions serve the same purpose as the more overt addictions. They are all attempts to have control over getting love/approval and avoiding pain.
You might want to honestly look inside and see what some of your covert addictions are.


Are you addicted to blaming others for your unhappy feelings?
Do you use anger or tears to attempt to make others responsible for you?
Are you addicted to illness as a way to avoid personal responsibility for yourself?
Do you get obsessive in your thinking about what you will say or do in a particular situation?
How often do you explain and defend yourself rather than open to learning?
How often do you get angry or withdraw to avoid dealing with yourself?
How much time do you spend analyzing and figuring out yourself and others as a way to have control?

Any behavior other than taking loving, responsible care of yourself and being open to learning with yourself and others is addictive. All addictive behaviors are attempts to control rather than learn. Our intent to control or to learn actually governs all our behavior, and is the basis of Inner Bonding.


I get so much understanding and practical wisdom from the Bible. The Bible is not a book of straight out wisdom, it is a way of connecting with the Source of wisdom, the God of heaven and earth.

The Bible doesn’t refer to addiction in a direct way, but consider the following verses.















ISAIAH 55

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD'S renown, for an everlasting sign ,which will not be destroyed.”

HERE IS A PARAPHRASE WRITTEN FOR PEOPLE WITH ADDICTIONS

Hey, everyone who is wants to be free from their dependent, compulsive habits, come to me. You won’t need money for the treatment I will give you. If you will decide to transfer your dependence to me and I will give you everything you are searching for in your addiction but will never find there.
Look at all the money you’ve wasted on things that only destroy you and the people you love. These addictions go on demanding all kinds of effort from you but even if you had all the money in the world to spend on your habit, it would kill you not satisfy you.
I want you to listen to what I will say and if you receive what I will satisfy the deepest needs, the ones you are trying to satisfy through addictions. The risk you have to take is to transfer your allegiance from that habit to me. If you receive what I have to say, my words will save you and your loved ones from inevitable destructive separation and even death. Instead of making a covenant with death, make your covenant with me. My covenant is to give you life now and life forever.
When you make this covenant to hear and respond to me, you will have a new authority. The things that ravaged and plundered your life and the life of your family will no longer have power. You will be envied by others not pitied by them. Your life will be an example rather than a warning.
So seek the Lord, not the source of your next addictive experience. He is near to you right now. You can find him right where you are.
Begin to exercise this decision by saying goodbye to things that you know are destructive and tell those compulsive thoughts to take a hike. Do something, anything that would be an action that signifies you are turning your life over to the Lord God of heaven and earth. He will receive you lovingly. He will wipe away the guilt you carry around with you every day and the shame that never leaves you.
All this might seem impossible to you. What you have to understand is that I can see things like you could never see them and I can do things you could never dream of doing. The difference between your resources and mine and the difference between the way you do things and the way I do things are like cheese and chalk. You have to learn to trust my ways even though you don’t understand them.
Just like rain and snow fall to the earth and accomplish their purpose of providing water and nourishment for the soil, so the words that I will speak to you will have their impact on your life. They will accomplish what is impossible in your own strength. They never fail to achieve the result I have intended. There is no such thing as a received word from God not accomplishing its divine purpose.
The result is that instead of the guilt and shame that crushes you, and instead of the anguish you cause to those around you, you will not leave your home in anger or sorrow. You will leave with joy and return with joy. You will come and go with peace inside your heart and peace in your mind. The world around you will seem a different place and will embellish your way. It will seem to celebrate with you rather than be against you..

You will no longer sow unrighteousness and reap destruction. Instead of living a life that only produces hopelessness and uselessness you will begin to see the fruit of God’s plan. You will sow honesty and reap beauty. You will sow godliness and read joy for you and your children and your children’s children..

These things will be the sign of the honour of God in your life and nothing will destroy what God does in and through your life.



THE POWER OF ADDICTIVE HABITS TO CUT YOU OFF FROM GOD.

2 Corinthians 9

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.


Strict Training
What we are called to do matters. It matters to God. It matters to other people and therefore it must matter to us.

Practicing for greater focus
No one gets into this work automatically and they don’t get better at it automatically. It requires strict discipline and training. What we do must make sense in terms of the reason why we breath. If it doesn’t get rid of it.
The challenges provided by our priorities are important as far as the process is concerned, not just the result. What will happen in side of us when we rise to these disciplines is as important as the result. This has nothing to do with legalistic practices and religious duty any more than training for an athlete is simply rigorous and otherwise meaningless rituals.

I make sure my body is subject to me
What I eat and drink
What exercise I do
What priorities I keep
What I watch and what I read
Where I take this body



If I don’t this could knock me out of the game
The issues here are as mentioned above. It is not just a matter of food or habits that cause needless suffering and hardship to ourselves and others. If something can control out bodies like that, the same thing can control other things we do.
If the unreality we live in by not dealing with these things is allowed to remain we can find ourselves developing elaborate systems to cover up flaws and weaknesses that will one day have the ability to destroy our whole ministry in Jesus name.



THE PRINCIPLES COME FROM THE GOOD NEWS THAT JESUS SPOKE ABOUT

MATTHEW 11
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

This principle will only be missed by people who are too full of themselves to be willing to see it


The opportunity to embrace what God is wanting to give and what God wants to do is open to everyone. Jesus life was the shopfront window that people could look in. He wasn’t exclusive like the religious leaders of his own day. He put God’s mercy and grace within the reach of all the people the religious systems turned off. (how many people have been turned off by the unrighteousness of the church that has been assumed to be righteous)


COME TO ME

If you have loads to carry that don’t mean anything and if you are simply giving out all your energy but accomplishing nothing.

If you want the battles to stop happening in your mind, and in your heart and between you and the people who love you


TAKE MY YOKE

You will need to be constantly connected to me
You will need to form the closest of bonds with me
You will need to become accountable to me
But the reality is that I want to be connected with you forever. I want us to be a team


LEARN FROM ME

Start a course with me. Learn everything there is in the Word
I am a really good teacher; I don’t laud it over everyone and make them feel bad because they make mistakes. The only way you will not learn from me is be separating yourself from me. If you let me stick around you will learn. It might take a while but you will learn.


AND THE BATTLE WILL BE OVER: rest for your soul