Addiction

                                               When The Door Slams

In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive with God through Christ Jesus. So do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your sinful self wants to do. Do not offer the parts of your body to serve sin, as things to be used in doing evil. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used in doing good. Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law but under God's grace.
                                                                                                                               Romans 6:11-14   

          Think about this: Can any human activity become an addiction? Yes. When carried to an extreme, any behavior can veer out of control and become the dominant, driving force in a person's life. It can master her. It can consume him.

          Whatever the habit, the two-step pattern is always the same. The first phase is the mental preoccupation--the obsession. The thought of the activity grabs hold of the person and preoccupies him or her to the exclusion of everything else. The person can't shake it loose, can't let it go. At this point, the shopaholic is absorbed, even obsessed with the idea of a buying binge. She wants to acquire, collect, and possess.

          In the case of the relationship addict, he is obsessed with the notion of taking charge of the relationship, and perhaps even taking charge of the other person. After the obsession comes the second phase: acting out the obsessive thought. The action is the compulsion. The relationship addict or the shopaholic loses control, gives in to the mental preoccupation, and is compelled--even driven--to do whatever he or she feels is necessary. She shops. He flirts. Or, in the case of other addictions, he or she might exercise, work, worry, scrub, or gulp mega-vitamins incessantly, like me.

          The list of compulsions is practically endless. [We have] divided the one common compulsions into six general groups: money matters, wellness and health; work and play; service and voluntarism; relationships; and my favorite category perfectionism.

Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness.                                              Never Rest Ministries