by Mark Shaw & TAC Team
During the pandemic years beginning in 2020, I began to emphasize the sin of unbelief and how that looks in addiction.
Returning to that theme today, I want to say once again:
What is at the heart of addiction is actually what can be changed to help you to overcome your addictive choices for the glory of Christ!
Core Heart Problem
At its core, addiction is a “belief problem” or an “unbelief problem.” Here’s what I mean: if you are actively choosing to please yourself by seeking illicit or even sinful pleasures, then your primary problem is that you are believing a lie (or multiple lies). That may sound stark but the hope comes in what can happen next! If and when you tear down the lie, you can replace it with truth in a process outlined clearly in Ephesians 4:20-24:
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
In other words, you do not have a progressively fatal, hopeless disease of addiction! You simply have a problem in your belief system that can be addressed by the reading and doing of God’s Word (James 1:22) and through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 6:17).
Sample Lies We Believe
People who use drugs and alcohol embrace the lies that motivate them:
“This will fix my problem”
or…
“This offers me relief without consequences”
or… ______
There are way too many lies we tell ourselves to justify or defend or encourage the pursuit of a drug. Or any sin experience really.
When one is using drugs or alcohol as an escape from pain to pleasure, often it is motivated by a desire to be autonomous like God.
“I can do what I want” fuels this mindset. Psalm 14:1 says:
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
The belief level within one’s heart reveals that I am operating as though there is no God and the belief that I can do whatever drug without answering to anyone.
If someone were to just tell you the truth (such as…
everyone will answer to God, or
you will never be in total control or
you will never reach total satisfaction in this life by God’s design…
These truths would only be the start. There is another part. If you have been believing lies and pursuing addictive solutions for life, you must embrace the truth in place of believing the lie. The Holy Spirit must be at work inside your heart to bring you to a proper place of confession, repentance, and faith in Christ for forgiveness.
Otherwise, their motivation is going to be less than the glory of God.
Phil. 2:13 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
1 Cor. 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Trusting Yourself
Unbelief blocks the experience of a vibrant relationship with God because trusting oneself above God is the heart problem. The heart of unbelief is trusting in oneself. Proverbs 3:5-8 tells us to NOT trust ourselves by saying do NOT lean on our own understanding.
Even when the circumstances are hard, God lovingly instructs us to “be not wise in your own eyes…” (Proverbs 3). We lean on our own understanding and in those moments, at the same time, we doubt God.
Eternal Tragedy
Overdosing from a sinful choice of drug use based on unbelief and doubting Who God is can lead to the death of the body. It is a devastating thing to doubt God and to have a “belief system problem.” For some, death might mean eternal damnation in hell — doubly tragic.
Some people wonder, But what if they had a Profession of Faith and were Even Baptized…?
Can True Believers Overdose and Die?
Some true believers in Christ forsake their sin and achieve what the world calls “clean and sober” (clean and sober to most people just means not doing whatever they were doing before) yet some days or weeks later, they go back to their sin by choosing to use an illicit drug like fentanyl— causing an overdose and death. A comforting truth is that because of their faith in Jesus, their return to this sin does not have the power to nullify their salvation. There are people in heaven right now even though they overdosed and died. You cannot earn nor do you deserve your salvation (Eph. 2:8-10) nor can you lose it by sinning again.
Born again believers can rest in knowing that because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, God our Father forgives past, present, and future sins.
Demonstrating Trust in a Sovereign God
Fear of sickness and death heightened during the unprecedented pandemic times, but there were some people who were still trusting in God. Some were serving as employees in hospitals, first responders, civil service, and other essential service work. There were many who exuded boldness. Some had immense trust in God and some had trust in something else they were believing, which may have been a lie (e.g. this mask or this preventive injection will protect me from all harm…)
We need exhortation and community every day.
Because it is so easy for us to embrance lies, we need someone in our lives every day! We don’t see clearly and God made us as inter-dependent upon each other and dependent upon Him. God did not make us to be independent. We are far too weak for that. We need to be in meaningful relationships — first, with God and also with others.
Our relationships with others show how strong our relationship with God is.
We need to embrace the truth that we can never function independently because we are not gods. We would be terrible gods because we lack power and every other infinite characteristic of the One True God.
We must believe the truth that we are creatures made in the image of God with great worth but we were never designed for independence.
Beyond “Clean & Sober”
The bigger message of hope for addiction is more than clean and sober. It’s about making Jesus Lord and Savior so we don’t even want to go back to the old ways of the flesh.
Unbelief is a key problem in the heart of the addicted. Operating as if we are “god,” we trust in our own solutions.
Life in habitual sin can be lonely, and we all can be deceived by our own sin in our own heart. This leads to becoming hardened in your heart.
Find somebody to exhort you.
That’s the number one danger of isolating and living in your own world. We can become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Unbelief—it’s just doubting God and trusting self as if you are a king or “god.” You need somebody outside of yourself to point out the ways that you are believing this lie and living independently because you may not see it.
You need Christ.
Don’t try to do it in your own strength. Don’t think you’ve gotta be superman and do this without help.
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:12-13 (ESV)