No One Sets Out To Be An Addict

No one sets out to be an addict.

I think that’s a fair statement, right? I mean, who wants to be enslaved to some drug to the point where they are no longer able to say “no”? Nobody I’ve ever met.Yet, anytime I’ve ever had a conversation with an addict, their story is always the same. None of them were planning on being an addict. In fact, the delusion for the longest time, until their admission of their problem, was that they had everything under control. They would lie to themselves, and others, about their fleeting ability to exit the downward spiraling path they were on.Addiction (Google.com):  physically and mentally dependent on a particular substance, and unable to stop taking it without incurring adverse effects.I wonder how many people are addicted to this world. After all, the world’s goods are like drugs, and the human flesh, an addict. At some point, the addiction becomes so severe that all truth is cast off, deflected with little or no consideration. Nothing else matters to an addict except their next fix. In the spiritual realm, the Bible refers to this phenomenon as the “hardening of the heart by the deceitfulness of sin”.Take care, brethren [addressing Jewish brethren, ala Romans 9:3, as opposed to holy brethren, ala Galatians 1:2], that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.” For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.In a very real sense, we are all born addicts. Our flesh has such a strong propensity for the “drugs” of the world that it’s as if we were born to live a life of addiction. But, Jesus, the Great Physician, is like the drug counselor playing hardball, placing before us life and death, encouraging us to choose life that we may live. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”We’ve all heard the exchange between counselor and addict, “If you don’t stop taking this drug you’re going to die!” That is precisely the same thing, analogously, that Jesus explained to His disciples in Matthew 16:24-26. The point is simple. If you live your entire life with your back turned to truth and life in Christ, you will die in your sins, a horrible, depraved death. If you’ve ever seen the physical state of a severe addict just prior to death, you get the picture. Only in the spiritual case, unlike the physical addict, the “addict” spends eternity in agony.I’ve had several loved ones in my life that have been addicts. Some of them died still using. One of the most hopeless feelings in the world was trying to talk sense into them before their bodies finally gave up. At some point, it seems that addictions become so bad that it’s virtually impossible to get through to the addict. In the spiritual realm, we liken this to the “searing of the conscience”.But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.Sadly, I fear I know a lot of spiritual addicts that are just about immune to the Truth. They’ve said “no” to the Truth about salvation for so many years that sowing the Gospel seed is like trying to plant a tomato seed on a slab of slate rock - it’s fruitless (I say this knowing that with God all things are possible, of course). It’s painful to think about the finality of it all. It hurts to watch someone keep choosing death over life, self over Christ. I guess our motivation should be to keep evangelizing before it’s “too late”.No one I’ve ever met ever started out wanting to be an addict.They’ve all said somewhere along the way, “I’ve got this under control...I can quit anytime I want.” They keep on saying that until it’s too late and they’re engaged in a battle their flesh can no longer win. Some have been through so many iterations of “help” that they’ve run out of options, and even the most dedicated “helpers” have thrown in the towel, simply awaiting a phone call or a trip to identify a body on a gurney. I hate to be so graphic, but this is heart-wrenching stuff.So goes the life of the unbeliever who’s “putting off” the “big decision” about Jesus Christ...who says, “I’ve got this all under control...I’ll quit the self-life when I’m old and have sown my oats to the world...I’ll grab my portion of eternal life just in the nick of time!” My friend, this person is playing a game that no one ought to play. They are playing with life and death, light and darkness, bliss and agony. Who’s to say that this person’s heart won’t be so hardened by then that they won’t even be interested in the Gospel? Who’s to say that their conscience won’t be so seared that the Truth is no longer something they’ll even listen to? That is my contention with the spiritual addict’s retort to spiritual death. Their plans for salvation may shrivel up, proving in the end that they were merely the product of human power, which has never saved a soul.My fear is that by the end of their lives most spiritual addicts will be so hooked on worldly “drugs” that they will have long since forgotten about, or carried any affinity whatsoever for, the things of Christ, particularly as Lord and Savior. My prayer is, that since none of us laborers have been able to get through to them, that the Spirit will find a unique way to humble them before it’s too late. So goes the pain and suffering of watching an addict spiral down towards death...it’s just so awful...and to hear them proclaim they’re in control long after they’ve lost said control makes it all the more agonizing to watch...like a fatal car wreck in slow motion.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins