Dealing with guilt and addiction part 2

The biggest lie that Satan uses when you are trying to recover from guilt and addiction is that God walked away from you because you walked away from Him. He will not accept you back. You blew it too big this time. But when you look at scripture this is not the case. The struggle to recovery lies in two arenas. The first is that you are trying to deliver yourself from your addictions and guilt under your own power not asking and trusting God to deliver you. The second is not believing God will accept you back because you have screwed things up too bad this time.

In knowing that you can do nothing to save yourself God sent Jesus to save you. When He came he recognized that life in this world is hard. He experienced it first hand, so He extended His arms out and said “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:28, 30).” Jesus recognized that the yoke of the law was a huge burden and not easy to carry/live up to. This is why He came so that He could offer His yoke which was to follow Him and learn from Him.

But what does this mean for the already Christ follower. It means that you can walk away from God and when you do the yoke that you are carrying will begin to way down on you. You no longer have God’s assistance in carrying it for you. You are carrying it on your own. But the same principle that applies to the non-believer of coming to Jesus for rest also applies for the already Christ follower who has walked away. You have to turn back and ask Him for assistance. When the world weighs down on you and things are out of control you must turn your eyes to the one who is in control of everything and has promised that if you come to Him you will find rest. It begins by falling on your knees and crying out to God for deliverance. The road to recovery begins by recognizing that you cannot free yourself from your addictions on your own. You must cry out to God for deliverance.

The second lie is that God will not accept you back. The only problem is that God is a jealous God and not a big fan of His children walking away. He won’t stop you, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want anything else to do with you when you do walk away. There is a story in Luke 15 which I am sure we all know. A very wealthy man had two sons. One son wanted nothing to do with his father and asked him for his inheritance early. Basically what this son was saying to the father is “I wish you were dead can I have what you owe me.” As if he deserved anything in my opinion. But the father accommodated the sons request and gave him half of his estate which the son went off and wasted on huge parties which probably involved lots of sex, drugs, and drunkenness. The son squelched his entire inheritance on parties until there was nothing left and he was forced to find a job feeding pigs. The son recognized his error in judgment and decided to go back to the father and work as a slave. It is interesting how the father responds. When the father saw the son in the distance “he ran to his son and embraced him.”

This is how God responds to you when you recognize your error in judgment and decide to come back to Him. God doesn’t walk away from you He is right were you left Him. He waiting and looking into the distance for you to return and when He sees you way off in the distance He runs to you and embraces you. He doesn’t bring up the past He looks ahead to what the future will become. When it comes to addictions you must cry out to God for deliverance and you cannot be afraid that He will not accept you back. Do not believe Satan’s lies. There is hope if you will “Come to Me all you are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”