The Real Answer to AddictionSample

Many people stop just short of true freedom. They go to treatment, clean out their proverbial house, sweep the floors, make amends, go to the meetings, but soon find themselves in a worse state then when they started. I’ve tearfully watched hundreds of my friends go down this painful path. Jesus said this would happen:

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also, will it be with this evil generation” (Matthew 12:43-45).

It’s not enough to get the bad out; we must also fill the empty space with something, or really Someone. Real freedom is not found in the absence of something (like drugs or alcohol), but in the presence of Someone. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). If we are going to experience lasting freedom, we must not only clean our spiritual house as we talked about in the last devotional, but we must also be filled with the Spirit of God. We must not only pull the weeds; we must also plant good seeds. 

In Ephesians 5:18, Paul says, “Do not be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but instead be filled with the Spirit.” God’s alternative to addiction to drugs and alcohol is satisfaction in God. We are not supposed to “just say no,” but rather, replace it with something better. The opposite of drunkenness and addiction is not sobriety but being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not white-knuckled abstinence but being immersed in the joy of knowing God. 

APPLICATION: 

• What are the current ways you are enjoying God?
• Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and to teach you how to drink deeply of Him.
• As you read the next day in this devotional, construct a plan of how to pursue God with the same vigor that you pursued alcohol or drugs.