Best defined as a restriction or an imprisonment

How many people are bound to different things: drugs, smoking, alcohol, gambling, shopping, technology and electronic games, gluttony or even the addiction to a particular person.
There is a study conducted in Britain and they found out that 1 out of 3 people in the world is bound to a particular addiction.

How does the addict feel?
Of course we can all know what an addict feels, because either one of us is or was an addict, or he knows someone within his very close circle, in his small family, who is an addict.
The addict feels as if he is in a locked up prison, and someone has thrown the key far away from him.
I know this feeling, because I was addicted to smoking myself. The first time in my life to have a cigarette was in 1997,I was 15 years old. Back then I used to think of it as an entertainment, since this age is the age of self-affirmation. By the age of 18, I had my own pack of cigarettes, and year after year, I started smoking one to two packs a day.
The more nervous and stressed I was, the more I smoked. Due to smoking, I had several diseases including asthma, and even when I was pregnant with my son, I did not quit. I used to deny that I am an addict, convincing myself that I am having fun and that it is my own will to smoke, while in fact I was like a prisoner whose prison key had been thrown away from him so he became helpless and decided to beautify his prison.
Few days ago, a woman told me that her marriage is completely ruined because of her husband’s addiction to alcohol. He tells her that his drink is a red-line and that he loves it, but in fact he is a drunkard who is ashamed to confess to his wife that he is a slave to a bottle of alcohol.

Getting rid of addiction:
Before we get rid of addiction, we have to diagnose the condition at its roots, and realize where we are and how much we are bound by our addiction. Paul the Apostle says:
Romans 7:14 “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”
“Sold” means that: after being a son as a Christian, you became a slave again and got yourself enslaved to another god.
The addiction causes schizophrenia in the addict, Paul the Apostle talks about this in very precise verses. He says in
Romans 7:15 “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
Romans 7 “18- For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19- For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
22- For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23- But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
He continues in a very wonderful way, saying:
Romans 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
This is exactly the case of the addict, for the addict knows the commandments as he knows the words of our LORD. He also knows what is stated in
1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
He knows that porn movies are domination, as well as weeds and drugs. He knows that he is a slave to something which he repeats and can’t get rid of; he knows all of that but he keeps doing it anyway because he has become a slave to the master of sin.
This is what we need to know in order to understand that addiction is not just a character or a habit or a tradition, but it rather has a master, spiritual roots and demonic control over this addict. The Holy Bible tells us in
Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;”

Honestly, I can’t remember how I quit smoking or what made me do it in 2017, all I remember is that after 17 years of addiction, one thought took over my mind and did not leave me for days, which is the following verse:
1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient”
The word “not expedient” or not appropriate has destroyed me, I felt that I am not worthy to be a bride for Christ, not worthy to have the Holy Spirit indwelling in me, and I do not deserve for the LORD to work in my life. This thought terrified me, though the LORD did not leave me even in the days of my addiction, but it seems that when we grow up spiritually, the body must be tamed in a way or another.

Addiction treatment:
Most addicts treat themselves in physical ways, through sessions, counselors, doctors, medications and drugs…etc. which 90% of them fail because the prison lock is still without a key. There could be temporary freedom, but then the addiction recovery setback will be worse than the one before.
There are three things we must bear in mind as Christians while we go through our journey to addiction recovery, but if you are non-Christian, you are in a way deeper hole, because the Christian has at least the baptism, the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, and the protection by the blood of Christ; he has something to cover him up before the Throne of Grace.

Three things we must know for our treatment:
1- When you go to a doctor or an addiction center for treatment, you tell them your name and what you are addicted to, as they may also ask if there is a kind of addiction in your family. With the LORD, it is different. Our LORD does not care about your name, nor does he care about your lineage, your family, or your history. The LORD cares only for one important thing, which is that His son or daughter is bound and needs to be freed. So the first step is to know how important you are to the LORD.
2- To get rid of addiction, there is an effective prescription you need to persist:
Read “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans 6,7,8”. Consider these chapters as a medical prescription (real medicine) even if you do not understand them.
Do you understand all the prescriptions given to you by the pharmacist? Do you understand the pharmaceutical formulation of the medicines you are taking?
Definitely not. Likewise, consider these chapters as a prescription which you trust its effectiveness even though you do not understand it.
Romans chapter 6, explains how you are enslaved to sin.
Chapter 7, diagnoses the exact type of domination you have.
As for chapter 8, it gives you the prescription for your freedom, tells you how salvation will be obtained, where the key to your prison is and in whose hand.
In Romans 7:25 “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Salvation and freedom are not possible, except through Jesus Christ. When He was nailed on the cross, He nailed the sin, He nailed the curse, He nailed the chains, He nailed the demonic domination, and He nailed every need too, giving us in His resurrection to rise with Him; He gave us freedom in Him.
Romans 6: 5 “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”
Baptism means that we die with Christ, bury the old person we were (the slave of sins) and be born again as a new person who is worthy of be called a “son”.
Romans 6:6 “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
This does not mean that whoever reads Romans 6-7-8, even if he is a non-Christian, will be freed from the bondage of addiction, because the Holy Bible has the living and powerful word of God, it has the truth and in order for this truth to set us free we have to believe in the One who has the key.
For example, if you are imprisoned, and someone has bailed you out, can you get out immediately?
Of course not. You have to sign some papers, get the permission to be released, commit to some matters, and most importantly, you should accept the bail, only then you can leave.
The same example applies to reading the Holy Bible, the price has already been paid, but did you believe in the one who redeemed you? Did you accept the redemption?
Countless verses in the Holy Bible tell us about the freedom that the LORD God has prepared for us through Jesus Christ
Luke 4:18 “to set at liberty them that are bruised,”
John 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
What does “free indeed” mean? There is a difference between the paid bail and the release, as the Son is the only One who can “indeed” set you free.
Romans 6: “3-…that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4- Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
If we unite with Him in the likeness of His death, we will be resurrected with Him as well. You who are today in a tomb or prison, are you able to die with Christ to obtain the resurrection and become a new man?
Paul the Apostle says in:
1 Corinthians 6: “9- Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10- Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
He also talks about the absolute enslavement to sins, including addiction, saying to them:
“11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
And here we understand that with Christ, you do not have to wash yourself of your sins, as He took care of that.
Instead of your failed attempts to wash and free yourself by your own, like an old woman who refuses to use her automatic wash machine and decides to do the laundry by her hand, turn to your liberator and say to Him: “Wash me, LORD”.
“but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
3- The Spirit of our LORD,
We cannot always touch the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and only few hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, but this does not mean that the Spirit is not working.
The Holy Bible tells us in:
Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

We do not always know how to pray for ourselves, or how to turn to the LORD in an appropriate way, but the Holy Spirit in us knows how to intercede for us better than thousand intercessors.

Do not be afraid to return to the LORD to heal you, because no one in the whole world is more compassionate to you than Him.
Job 5:18 “For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.”
The Holy Bible tells us in:
1 Corinthians 11:31 “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”
Always remember that no one had run after the LORD Jesus saying to Him: “Heal me, save me, O Lord, have mercy on me” but obtained his request.
Take your decision today and cry out from your prison. Trust that He who has the key is very close, He can hear even your breath, and see every tear of yours. Raise your voice before it is too late, say with David in
Psalms 51:2 “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”
Weep out and say: (Wash me, for I do not know how to wash myself, I tried and did not succeed. My family and doctors were unable to help, they took me to my hospitals, they gave me medicines, but we failed. You wash me, O LORD)
From your darkness, cry out to the light, for Christ, the Light of the world, is standing at the door of your heart knocking, so do not hesitate to open the door. Let’s recite:
Psalms 119:133 “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”
Amen.

Sep / 15 / 2021