¹⁴ The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate… ¹⁸ And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it… 

²¹ I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²² I love God’s law with all my heart.²³ But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. ²⁴ Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? ²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:14-15, 18-25 (NLT)

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

Would You Like to Get Well?

Jesus said, essentially, that I am addicted to sin… and you are too, for that matter (John 8:34). He also said in the Bible that He came to earth for the sick and impoverished; referring to Himself as a physician. I understand that selfish sin is initiated by choice of the mind acted out through behavior. But Jesus is clear that sin is a disease. If addiction to sin is a disease, then addiction to anything symptomatic of sin is a disease. Sin has made us sick. So Jesus asks, “Would you like to get well?”

“I have no direct control over my temperament. If what we are matters even more than what we do… then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about.” —C.S. Lewis

Selfish is defined as concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself… seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others. Sin is at its root selfish every time. We were not created to be selfish but to desire according to the best that God intends for our pleasure, in the interest of what brings Him pleasure; which in turn is imminently beneficial to our interests. That was and still is the way, the truth, and the best life that is in relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds. Ephesians 4:22-23 (NLT)

“I especially liked the way you tackled the difficult matter of ambivalence and how our addictive behavior runs counter to the intellectual truth of the matter (common sense). There is a sorrow that the soul must go through in letting go of what it thought it loved. We have to come to the place where we truly get it that what God wants for us is GOOD. To some degree, our resistance to His will reveals that we do not really believe it is good—at least not the kind of ‘good’ we want.” —Fran Leeman

We all have on some level contributed to the problem of evil through sin. So far as evil is concerned we have all bought in. Regardless of how much any one of us has paid into it, death is evil’s plan for all of us. Evil is impartial, angry, and doesn’t care who gets hurt until finally… it costs us our lives.

Once again, it must be emphasized that what really is true, really is true, and you don’t have to believe it to be truly real to be profoundly impacted by it.

Jesus paid that price so that we can be free from sin and live in relationship with him. The consequences of sin is pain. When something hurts bad enough, it is indeed the catalyst for the transformative change that spawns new life. This change is realized when the desires in me that are linked to pain and dying are purged from me and themselves put to death. Desires that forge pathways into living in the prosperity of God’s best are free to dance in the fountain of his favor.

A New Testament apostle wrote, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:15) What is real in our experience is that there are behaviors we have grown to loathe since being in relationship with God but yet cannot seem to escape them.

Jesus traced my preoccupation with me to a certain selfishness on my part, declaring that I am a slave to sin (John 8:34)—addicted to selfishness. Apostle Paul wrote that there is a power within me at war with my mind (Romans 7:23). You see, it really is all about me. That’s a problem.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)

The way we view self is through the lens of our life experiences. When the lens is fogged up by our experiences, we’ll struggle to see things clearly, which in turn impacts beliefs that distort our values and self-esteem. Distorted beliefs and twisted values fuel feelings and thoughts that drive choices and behavior; even though we may know better on a reasonable, intellectual level. When emotion betrays reasonable sensibility, that’s when the problems get bigger, conflicts intensify, and confrontations lapse into hostility. Healthy guilt, instead of being a platform for motivating change and growth, morphs into that bottomless pit of shame, and profound feelings of disappointment and failure.

Are you burdened with guilt… isolated by shame? Do you feel labeled by failure? Can you become paralyzed by discouragement, fear and doubt, afraid of what’s next? How bad would you say it is? If you wrote it down how you feel, might it go something like…

“My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear… I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief… I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart… I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain… My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.” —King David, Psalm 38 (NLT)

King David, a man after God’s own heart, identified his sin problem as a malignant disease that bankrupted his soul. Is addiction then a matter of choice or is addiction a disease? The Bible is clear… Addiction is both a “responsible” choice and it’s a disease.

“I can do nothing on my own… I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” —Jesus of Nazareth (John 5:30)

This (Advocate) of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT)

Having been set free from the sins of your yesterday, today and tomorrow, even though you’re not perfect and will make mistakes, might your prayer sound something like…

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” —King David, Psalm 51 (NIV)

Oh, That You Would Choose Life

When David was lost in his addiction he expressed feeling overwhelmed by guilt, crushed by an anguished heart, racked with constant pain. He searched feverishly for remedies to quell the pain, massage a strained ego, assuage a deeply troubled conscience, and bandage a severely wounded soul. He sought desperately to overcome fear and doubt and somehow comprehend stability in the hopelessness of such dire circumstances. When surrendered he was restored into something far better, restoring his trust in the goodness of God.

Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” John 5:6 (NLT)

Asking if you want a path to a better healthier life might feel a bit insulting since, well, of course you do! Jesus asked a man who’d been paralyzed by misery for almost forty years, “Do you want to get well?” which when more accurately translated from the original Greek text means, “Are you willing to be made whole?” He may as well have asked, “Do you even want to experience a better healthier life than this?” C.S. Lewis suggested that, while I may seek a remedy for the “tooth” that hurts the most, God is attentive to all of the decay in my life and intends to work on all of my “teeth” until the change in me is complete.

God’s love for you is never in question. It’s the life and the love you can experience each and every day in relationship with Him that’s at stake… Do you want it?

The thing about real change into a new life experience is that you have to want it enough, desiring to receive the best of all that God wants and has for you. Do you want God’s best?
.  .  .  .  .   O R   A R E   Y O U R   H A N D S   F U L L ?
You open Your hand and fill the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:16 (NLV)

“Clearly, God is not opposed to desire. Far from it. He gave us a heart that desires deeply, and He uses those desires to draw us to Himself, and to the life He created us to live… To live life fully—that is to say, to live life as God meant for us to live—demands a full recovery of our heart.” —John Eldredge

What we see is clouded by our experiences. But what God sees is crystal clear. When God looked into the heart and soul of his servant, David, God did not pay particular attention to David’s reckless lifestyle. King David’s madcap way of life was not only suspect, he led quite the hedonistic campaign for doing whatever he wanted to do, and often didn’t seem to care who all got hurt.

Yet, what God saw when he looked at David was a man of great depth and passion for greatness. God saw in David a warrior willing to give his all as a servant. God would refer to David as a man of his own heart. Though David was a decadent king who lavished in his own glory, God extended grace to David and washed him clean, declaring the king innocent and faultless; and bestowed unto to David glory; undeserved, but to be enjoyed nonetheless.

God already sees us with perfect clarity and has deemed you and I to be faultless without blemish or wrinkle. God sees us clearly from the lens of his son’s righteousness. I believe God, even now, wants us to see ourselves the way he sees us. We are no longer blind; no longer lost; no longer poor; no longer oppressed. We have been liberated… set free.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Luke 4:18-19 (NLT)

What gains leverage against your deepest sensibilities? What powers are you a slave to? What has sunk its teeth into your soul, starving your spirit? What owns you? What does that mean for how you live and how you cope? Where is your hope? Look up and see that God is good and will not disappoint you.

“That great pit into which all sin and hopelessness ultimately flows, cannot stand before the life and love of God.” —Fran Leeman

Today, I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings (favor) and curses (consequences). Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. OH, THAT YOU WOULD CHOOSE LIFE. Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT)

Bathe in the healing pool of God’s mercy. Lay your burden down and soak yourself in the lather of his generous favor.

Of course, it’s not enough to identify the problem…

Click here to DISCOVER SOLUTIONS for the Very Best of a New Life Experience

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: References made on this website to individuals are done so with their permission to publish their stories. Their names have been changed. Direct quotes by anonymous contributors and clients of mine are used with permission. To maintain anonymity, they have each been given the names of U.S. presidents.

Brooks Williams performs Amazing Grace…