I quit heroin, but I can't stop smoking

There is power in the Gospel, power to deliver us from our addictions, power to set us free (Romans 1:16). Though there are exceptions, for the most part Christianity in the West has failed to tap into this power, or often to even preach it. But it is there and it is available to those who will believe. It seems to come supremely at the place where faith and desperation mix. I experienced this in my own life (see last July's “Journey” posts), and I have seen it in the lives of friends who got saved too. They were into different  and currently less known drugs than heroin, but drugs that were every bit as addictive.  The deliverance was spectacular, and in each case, the joy of the new relationship with Jesus, was greater than the highs of the the drug of choice, but without the side effects (unless you call joy a side effect). There were times I wished I had gone as deep into that stuff as they had, because of the experience of deliverance.  But there were also times when sanity rained, for I knew and know that we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7), and there were struggles that would come. I also knew by that time, that unless things were dealt with that needed to be dealt with, the deliverance would not be permanent and the latter state of the man would be worse than the former state (Matthew 12:43-45).



There were also things that remained even after the spectacular deliverances. I am thinking of one particular example of a  friend who, after the spectacular delivery from hard drugs (Mescaline, LSD,  Coke etc.),  was left wanting to quit smoking too, but for the longest time was somehow unable to do it. This paralleled my own experience where some of the more destructive addictions were handled easily with His help,  but I was left with “lesser addictions” that I struggled with for years and years. I got to asking why He would help me so wonderfully with the big things, but leave me to struggle with lesser things?   On the surface, it didn't seem to make any sense, but God is not always easy to understand.



I have found myself humbled as I have sought to write my answer to the “why” of the last paragraph. I thought I knew, and I do have some ideas, but  He brought me back to the verse “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” God is so much bigger than we have even begun to imagine, so much wiser. He has been showing me many many things behind His actions, even this one. We need to realize that when we have insight into His ways, we have but scratched the surface.  As the Scripture says “no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11B).



My initial thoughts about this puzzling “omission” in my own and other's deliverance lead me to my own pride.  The problem is, that we are want to take credit where is it not due.  I have seen it, done it and have more t-shirts to prove it.  In a previous post (Dec 5) I described a typical scenario where this happens. The alcoholic for example working the 12 steps, is given victory.  It came relatively easily when he surrendered completely. He is in trouble however, when he begins to think that it is by his will power and self determination that he delivered himself.  When we take credit for what He does for us, especially when we get proud because of it, this pride separates us from Him, from the source of our deliverance. He tells us in His Word “Let he who thinks he stand, take care lest he fall”,  and “pride comes before the fall” (I Corinthians 10:12 and Proverbs 16:18). So my initial answer to the question was “to keep us from pride”. But there is more, much much more.



God does not look at things the same way we look at things. We want to look good on the outside, God is interested in what is going on in the inside.  He wants (a) to do a deep work in us, not just to give us a superficial make over.   At the same time,  (b) He wants us to know His power in us to do what we cannot do on our own.  He also wants (c) to draw us deeper into relationship with Him, to establish us,  and to fulfill us by our participation and partnership in the bringing in of His Kingdom. If He does it all for us, it is not partnership. If the deliverance is too easy, we far too easily go back to our addictions (Proverbs 26:11). I mean He will do it again won't He, even over and over when He needs to? Well yes He does and He will, but He needs our participation,  and He needs us to understand the cost of what He does and did (back to the Cross), and He needs us to understand that sin has consequences.  



I have come to realize that He has many reasons and purposes in all that He does, in how He deals with us. He is wise beyond our wildest imagination. Its  is all about our growth, all about relationship with Him.  It is true what they say “He loves us exactly as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us this way”.  I intended to start the new year with a post entitled “Without God man cannot. Without man God will not”.  It will however be the subject of several posts.  It is about walking the Christian walk, about gaining and keeping victory in Him. It's about entering the abundant life, it's about bearing fruit.  There is much to learn. The Scripture puts it this way, it is line upon line,  precept upon precept here a little there a little. It is  journey, it is process, it is relationship, it is life in the Spirit.   We are meant to live dependent on Him. This can be hard on our pride, but then our foolish pride will keep us from many good things if we let it.