Imagine being consumed, so obsessed you can’t concentrate. Imagine being addicted. Most have been swept up in a moment that seemed impossible to resist. But if you go there often, it becomes every day, all the time. It will define you, identify you: “Hello, my name is Robert, and I am an alcoholic.”
‘Alcoholic’ is hard to grasp if you have not been one. But the Bible describes it:
“Who has sorrow, needless wounds, bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine. Do not gaze at the wine sparkling in the cup. In the end it bites like a snake…. You will say, ‘they struck me, but I felt no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When I wake up I will search for another drink’” Proverbs 23:29-35.
God UNDERSTANDS. He knows. He knows the way a “small treat” becomes the monster that rules your life. God CAN defeat the monster.
But it is a tough journey.
To rescue Gomer from sex addiction, God lays out His treatment plan:
“I will block her way with thorns. Enclose her with a wall… I will take back My gifts… Expose her shame… Put an end to her parties…. I will punish her…. THEN, I am going to persuade her, lead her…, speak tenderly to her. I will return gifts to her…. I will take her to be My wife forever… in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion” Hosea 2:6-19.
Submit to God. Give Him your sins. Trust Him to rescue you—and expect a tough journey. He may block your way, put up a wall, cut off your source. He may remove gifts that facilitated the sin (e.g., money). He will end the parties… and then things will turn and He will bless you with Himself, His kindness, tenderness, compassion, and gifts. And you will have a new, pure, healed life.
God, deliver us from sin!
ΑΩ
Household Words: 