Ever watch MY STRANGE ADDICTION? How can eating glass be addicting? Or drinking deodorant? Owning cats? Smelling gasoline? Eating plastic bags? Snorting baby powder? Eating rocks? Being stung? Eating your husband’s ashes? (Google it.)
Heroin is addicting, right? And alcohol and tobacco? But these people on TV are fakes, right? Wrong. You can be addicted—enslaved—to ANYTHING.
Jesus said, “He who sins is a slave of sin” John 8:34. The key is not the chemistry in the product; the key is the CHEMISTRY IN YOUR BRAIN.
The Bible calls lost people slaves and saved people free. But those of us who are free have a bad habit of returning to slavery. Why? Why would anyone who was once a slave return and put the chains back on? Maybe because you can get used to slavery—and freedom represents the unknown.
Paul offers repeated warnings: “Do you want to be enslaved all over again?… Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 4:9, 5:1. But how does a free believer become a slave all over again? By giving authority in his life—LORDSHIP—to things other than the LORD.
“All things are lawful for me [meaning, all sins are now forgiven]. But I will not be MASTERED by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12. Peter adds, “People are slaves to whatever defeats them” 2 Peter 2:19.
As believers, we have died with Christ:
“For our old self was crucified with Christ in order that sin’s dominion over us may be abolished… because he who has DIED is free from sin…. And sin shall NOT be MASTER over you, for you no longer live under the law, but under GRACE” Romans 6:6-7, 14.
What are your strange addictions? I’m serious. The answer to them is 1 Corinthians 10:13 (God will allow no temptation you cannot defeat) and Romans 6. A pastor and mentor once encouraged me to memorize Romans 6—and it made a difference. Pray about your habits and fill your mind with God’s truth so you can walk in freedom this year.
Read Galatians 4 and 5.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 