The freedom that enslaves

Many (most?) of us have to learn the hard way, that going for what we think will make us free, turns out very differently from what want or expect. The freedom to be bitter poisons us and those we love. The freedom to get drunk starts off with giving us a headache, but can finish up costing us our job,  our marriage,  our family  or even our life (driving drunk etc.).  Not everyone who drinks becomes an alcoholic of course, but we all have addictions,  even if we don't like to acknowledge them.

Let me list a few common (hidden) addictions.  We have for example, overeating, shopping, spending, television, internet, computer games,  worry, obsessive thinking,  etc., etc.  You will notice I did not say coffee.  Well I like it.  Clearly some addictions are more harmful than others, and some are bad habits over which we don't yet want to admit we are loosing control. The picture I have of this is that it is can be rather like a whirlpool in which we are, many times, not even aware we are swimming.  The ability to resist the pull towards the centre is manageable on the fringes. However the further we get into the whirlpool, the stronger that pull, so that when we really get into it,  we come to the place where no matter how strong a swimmer we are, the current is stronger still.

 Some additions are very destructive, but by the time our habit has become an addiction it is always destructive at one level or another.  When we are addicted to something we are not free, the addiction is taking us to the places it wants to take us.  Now we all have addictions hidden and not so hidden, but we don't all (yet) want to be free of them.  It comes back to the post “Do you want to be made whole”. Or perhaps “How whole do you want to be?”   There have been times in my life when my addiction to coffee had too big a hold on me. So I gave it up.  I needed to know (experience) that with God's help I could do that. I do drink coffee now, but then periodically I fast from it, since I am determined it will not rule me.  I need to be free. By the way, I am not saying coffee is the worst thing I have faced.

The point I am making is that the freedom not to drink coffee for me (and I am talking about me) is more important than the freedom to drink it. The freedom not to drink it will not enslave me, but the freedom to drink it could.  The apostle Paul makes an interesting statement in I Corinthians 6:12. He says “...  I will not be mastered by anything”. If we are mastered by an addiction, we are not free at all, certainly not "free indeed".

For me the habit of drinking coffee is relatively innocuous. But there are things that are much more destructive. In the same passage we have been looking at in the last two posts, Jesus says “He who sins is the slave of sin”.  We can become slaves to anger, or jealousy, or sex,  or greed, or gamboling etc., etc., and being trapped in these things things is like slavery.  When the appetite or the circumstance says jump, we jump!  We don't like to be told what we can or cannot do,  but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And as I keep on saying, it is smart to listen to the One who made us, who knows what is good and what is bad for us, what will fulfill  us, and what will rob us of quality of life. It bears repeating that when He says “no”, it is for our protection, and it is for our provision.  The Bible teaches that our sinful desires “war against”  our soul (1 Peter 2:11). Like cancer is to the body, so are our lusts a cancer to the soul.  But He is also the one who,  when we repent,  will help us to get free from the traps we fall into when we don't listen to Him. Like a father who has compassion on his children, so He has compassion on us. When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,  and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).

And there are many traps, and for sure we don't see all of them all. I experienced this just the other day. I was listening to a teaching on forgiveness when the speaker shared an experience she had where the Lord had convicted her that while she had forgiven such and such a person, she continued to judge him for his behaviour.  I was immediately convicted myself of doing the very same thing. Such times are crossroads. I could have complained “these Christians are always laying guilt trips” and been offended. On the other hand, I could do what I did,  which was to bow my head and ask His forgiveness and cleansing. I was suddenly free from an unhealthy soul tie with one I was judging. I felt freer than I have for some time. If the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed (also from John 8).