Freedom

I believe in freedom. I believe that God can set any man or woman free from any addiction.
First off I should tell you that there are more addictions than you think. Most of you would right off that bat say, 'drugs, alcohol, etc.' Well, there are many more things than that. And it's not only non-Christians that struggle with these kinds of things. The difference from a non-Christian and a Christian facing an addiction is that God has opened the Christian's eyes to see how deep the hole really is that he has fallen into, and God gives that person the will to look up out of that hole and cry out to God. Because that Christian knows that he cannot climb out of that hole by himself, he knows that God is the only one who can help him.
And the non-Christian won't even realize how disgusting and sick his addiction is without God. And he will never have the strength and will to get out of that hole without God.
But today I am not talking about the non-Christians as they struggle with addiction.
I am talking about the Christians who are fighting tooth and claw against sin and are at the brink of falling again.

In my last post I talked about prayer, and that God always answers it, even if the wait is long. Today I am going to write about praying through addictions. Everyone always says that you can never be free of an addiction. And they always tell a story about someone who had struggled so hard, and then he thought it was over, and then a few years later he fell again. So often life seems to be that way, you fight so hard, and the temptation stops for a while, and then when you are least expecting it you fall again. Just like that. The devil won again.
I am not encouraging you to stop fighting. No, you must always be on your guard, no matter how small or great the temptation is. I don't believe in sinless perfection on earth, so I am not saying that you can reach that or anything. But I believe you will always be battling sin on this earth.
Stories like I posted above has by no doubt ruined peoples' hopes of freedom. And that story above is just an example of how a lot of peoples' lives are. They fight and pray so hard, and the addiction seems to fade, we put our guard down and then we fall. It's a frightening thought, but a true one.
Sometimes I think it's because we stop praying, and we forget what has tempted us so greatly in the past.

That really makes me feel hopeless, that I will always be falling back into that hole again and again. But then, a few months ago I'll Be Honest posted a video by Paul Washer on the promises of God, and God showed me that I can be set free from addiction. Not as in never sinning, and never struggling with that thing again. But rather that if I keep praying and fighting against my sin, in the end I will have victory over that addiction.
If you pray that God will take away your desires for that addiction He will.
He will keep you. Even when you cannot keep yourself, He will hold you up.
I am not saying that you will never fall again in your addiction if you pray that once, but if you keep praying for freedom and if you are striving towards God and away from that sin. God will set you free.
And even when you fall you must not give up. You must look to God the morning after. You must not let the devil speak lies to you. This Micah 7:8--9 is for the morning after.

"Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
 When I fall I will arise;
Whe I sit in darkness,
The Lord will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD,
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my case
And executes justice for me.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see His righteousness."

There is hope the morning after. There is hope.
You will always be fighting, but by God's grace He will keep you and in the end you will have victory over that addiction. It is never we who keep ourselves. But God who keeps us.

God Bless,
  A.W.