The good things I want to do, I don't do them. The bad things I don't want to do, these things I do.

I was talking one time to an alcoholic friend of mine about this quotation from Romans 7. He told me, “There is a lot in the Bible that I do not understand, but I understand this  part”.  Those of us who have struggled (or still struggle) with addictions know about this very well and from a first hand perspective. I suspect that we don't really even begin to understand it though, until we really try to stop doing the things that cause us shame.

I remember sitting in a Church service one time when the Pastor said “If you have trouble with pornography stay away from that end of the video store”. I wanted to stand up and shout “Buddy, you don't have clue”. It is not the case that someone addicted to pornography is necessarily weak willed and unable to resist fleeting temptations brought about as he (or she) enters the video store. I am told that   pornography stimulates the same pleasure centre in the brain as cocaine, and when full blown is every bit as addictive.   When this happens we become obsessed with it, and it occupies most of our waking thoughts (and then some).

It seems to me that rather than being weak willed, many of us who have been trapped in addictions have incredible will power. I mean after having failed again and again and again to still be willing to take a stand and determine in our hearts and minds to try again. Is the one who – if at first does not succeed  tries, tries, tries, tries again weak willed? I think not!  The problem is that will power alone will not deliver us from our addictions.  It is a common part of the addiction cycle to simply determine to try harder. With deep seated additions it simply does not work.  If you can relate to the quotation above, you will know what I am talking about.  Jesus put it this way “He who sins is the slave of sin (John 8:34)”.

Most of us need help to break these  cycles. We can understand the mechanism but still be unable to get out of the addiction  (see “Psychology without faith is lame” August 2010).  Fortunately there is good news. Paul at the end of the chapter quoted above asks “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  It can certainly feel like death when we are trapped in these cycles, it is absolutely not living the abundant life.  Paul answers his own question “I thank God, through Jesus Christ”.  We need to receive Him and we need to commit to walking in His ways.  The gospel  Paul preached is far more than the four spiritual laws that get us out of hell and into heaven. The Gospel is “The power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).  This word salvation is a big word, yes it means we get to heaven at the end, but it also includes healing and deliverance in the here and now to “everyone who will believe”. He will meet  us where we are “at”. All things are possible to he or she who will believe (Mark 9:32).