{"id":612,"date":"2012-04-24T08:08:49","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T13:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sgledhill.com\/bronze\/?p=612"},"modified":"2012-06-30T13:13:33","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T18:13:33","slug":"twrap-004-8210","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/applications\/twrap-004-8210","title":{"rendered":"TWRAC 045: Addicted to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This Week&#8217;s Recovery Application Challenge<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you arrived here and have not completed this week&#8217;s TWIRL activity, <a class=\"wp-oembed\" title=\"Open TWIRL 004\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sgledhill.com\/bronze\/?p=609\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">click here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In western society we tend to applaud and reward ambition.\u00a0 However, James, a disciple of Jesus Christ, writes in the New Testament the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>\u201cFor wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.\u201d <\/strong>James 3:16 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>\u201cWhat is causing the quarrels and fights among you? \u00a0Don\u2019t they come from the evil desires at war within you?\u00a0 You want what you don\u2019t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can\u2019t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.<\/strong> <strong>Yet you don\u2019t have what you want because you don\u2019t ask God for it.\u00a0 And even when you ask, you don\u2019t get it because your motives are all wrong\u2014you want only what will give you pleasure.\u201d <\/strong>James 4:1-3 (NLT)<strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>\u201cTemptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.\u00a0 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.\u201d<\/strong> James 1:14-15 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Are you controlling?\u00a0 To what degree would you say you need to be in control?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What and who in your life is within your control?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What and who in your life is outside of your control?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Take a minute and ponder this before answering this question.\u00a0 When considering your circumstances and relationships, how might you be in denial concerning expectations, control (or lack thereof) and dissatisfaction?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">James wrote in the New Testament that selfish ambition leads to disorder and evil.\u00a0 Jesus said we are slaves to sin.\u00a0 Even the Apostle Paul wrote that he was enslaved by sin.\u00a0 What would you say it means to be enslaved, or controlled, by the power of self-centered sin?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What are you enslaved by?\u00a0 What things seem to have a grip on your life?\u00a0 What occupies your thoughts? \u00a0What drives you emotionally?\u00a0 Process these questions together and explain.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How does your answer to the previous question translate into behavior?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Apostle Peter wrote that our lusts war against our soul (1 Peter 2:11).\u00a0 Lust is desire that has grown into longing and craving, perhaps even coveting a thing.\u00a0 This is the conflict for the person who desires godliness in life.\u00a0 It is necessary to identify the things you crave.\u00a0 What do you need to be satisfied, today?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What have you identified that you would agree have at least some power over you?\u00a0 Mark them with a \u2018P\u2019.\u00a0 What have you identified that you would conclude own you, even if you don\u2019t necessarily see the harm in it?\u00a0 Mark them with an \u2018O\u2019.\u00a0 If left unchanged, what have you identified that will at some point destroy you?\u00a0 Mark them with a \u2018D\u2019.\u00a0 What have you identified that you want and\/or need to be set free from?\u00a0 Mark them with an \u2018SF\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Apostle Paul, author of much of the New Testament, battled mightily with wanting to live a life that pleased God versus wanting to satisfy his own desires, urges, and intentions that he admitted were selfish and ungodly.\u00a0 He hated doing things that satisfied his own \u201cneeds\u201d while in opposition to the purposes of God (Romans 7).\u00a0 Paul, like you, battled ambivalence\u2014wanting things that are opposed to each other.\u00a0 To have the one thing you want is at the expense of the other thing you also want.\u00a0 Even at great risk he chose things that provided temporary reward but led to invariable loss and pain, while neglecting the things that were gainful and productive.\u00a0 The result was miserable internal conflict for him.\u00a0 How is this true of you? <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Having been honest and thorough in answering these questions, would you be willing to admit that you are addicted to you?\u00a0 How did you arrive at your conclusion? <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"twttr_buttons\"><div class=\"twttr_twitter\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=TWRAC+045%3A+Addicted+to+Me\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"\" data-hashtags=\"\"  data-size=\"default\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/applications\/twrap-004-8210\"  data-related=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Week&#8217;s Recovery Application Challenge If you arrived here and have not completed this week&#8217;s TWIRL activity, click here. In western society we tend to applaud and reward ambition.\u00a0 However, James, a disciple of Jesus Christ, writes in the New &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/applications\/twrap-004-8210\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-applications","category-twrac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2286,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/2286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}