You’re not an addict!
In the first article in this series, I told you that I was going to make five bold and biblical statements about addiction. Those statements are: Addiction is not a disease! You were not born predisposed to addiction! Your heart is your greatest enemy! The reason we give in to temptation is that we want to! With this article I’m ending the series with this important truth: You are not an addict!
Even if you’ve struggled with addiction of some sort for many years. Maybe you’ve tried to quit many times but seem to always go back. I know that many people would label you as an addict.
In fact, there are programs that attempt to help people struggling with addiction and a weekly part of their strategy is to have you stand up and declare yourself to be an addict.
They say, “Hi, I’m so and so and I’m an alcoholic” or whatever it is you struggle with.
I’d like to say very plainly that this is not only not true, but also a lie straight out of hell. How do I know that? Because it contradicts Scripture. The Bible says you are a person created in the image of God. That is your identity. Now you might say, pastor Andrew aren’t you splitting hairs? No- that’s not the case because this is a significant distinction.
You see, how you diagnose the problem determines the solution to the problem that you’ll trust in. Being created in the image of God is your identity and not accepting that only moves you further from hope not closer. You might habitually choose to abuse drugs or alcohol or any number of other things, but your behavior is not who you are.
You’re created in the image of God and because of that, you have intrinsic worth and value. Teaching people that who they are is based on what they do locks them in a prison of addiction from which there is no escape and it’s just not true.
At Community Baptist Church in Bunnell, we have a ministry called Overcoming Addictions in Christ, using the practical truth from Scripture, we help people learn to overcome addiction. We meet on Thursdays at 7:00 PM and I want to encourage you to come if you struggle with addiction.
The biblical strategy we follow begins with the fact that all people are created in the image of God and as such have worth and dignity. We also show people that the Bible teaches that in Jesus Christ we can be set free from the bondage of all sin including addiction. In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul lists off several examples of sin that people in the church were enslaved to including drunkenness than in verse 11 he says, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
The only reason a person spends their life enslaved to addiction is that they make that choice day after day. People aren’t broken in some way that leaves them hopeless. Jesus Christ has overcome this world and in Him, you can overcome addiction. That’s not to say that there’s not a discipleship process and things you need to do including dealing with the past issues that made your addiction attractive to you in the first place. But, in Christ, your addiction can be a thing of the past if you want it that way.