Sunday Highlights: Addictions

I haven’t done these in a while.  Not sure why.  No one has complained that they are missing but still, I want to share yesterday’s.  We are in between series and yesterday was from our Journey Group Pastor.  To be honest, he wasn’t very clear on what exact question he was answering but it turned out to be on addictions.

I struggle with addictions.  I just have this thing where if I love something, I don’t know how else to love it but all the way.  And sometimes, love hurts.  Yes it does.  It hurts a lot of things including my relationship with Christ because I being replacing Him with those things.  I took lots of notes and just wanted to share them. I know these notes are difficult to follow sometimes without hearing it but maybe you can get enough to see if it’s something you need to go listen to.

Our past does not dictate our next steps.

We have strong compulsions to obey God; our spirit is willing but our body is weak. 

Good intentions are not good enough to overcome life-affecting habits and hang-ups.

God invites us to change our character and identity.  Religion says let me “do”.  Relationship changes who you are. 

Myths about addictions:

1. It’s a destination.  Christ invites us to go on a journey, changing our character so that our actions change to match the inside.

2. You can use all your strength to overcome your addictions.   But behavior modification does not work.  I believe it was here he talked about where Christ says if you sweep out a demon and do not replace it with Christ, then seven more come in.  If we have these addictions and then do not replace them with good habits, it’s only going to get worse.

3. I can be this on my own.  You are in denial about how bad your addiction is.  Only God can change you from the inside out.

 

We walked away with the question, what is your addiction right now?  What needs swept out of your life so that you can grow on your journey with Christ?  We all have addictions. It comes in many forms; alcohol, drugs, porn, a relationship, TV, food, sports.  Whatever it is, we have to surrender it.  Remember, our past does not dictate our next step.  Just do the next right thing!