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HOW DO HABITS BECOME ADDICTIONS?

By Emily Chase-Ziolek Leave a Comment

What is it that you just can’t live without? For Christians, the answer is simple: God. We literally cannot live without God. Without God there would be huge, gaping holes in our lives. He is the one who ultimately meets our need for love, safety and comfort. Why, then, do so many Christians suffer from addiction?

It’s not only addictive substances that are the problem. Even if we avoid drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, we can still develop innocuous addictions—little destructive habits that slip into our lives. It happens so subtly, we don’t even notice. The process is always the same—you find something that you enjoy, so you do it. Maybe you do it only for recreation or maybe you do it to help you forget about your problems or at least not to think about them for a while. Maybe you don’t even know why you do it. The first time you did it was pleasurable, so you keep doing it. You don’t put any limits on yourself and soon you are doing it more and more, sometimes for large chunks of the day. Instead of doing the things that you should be doing, you are engaging in this habit. It draws you in and makes you forget about your problems. But you also forget about your friends, your family and God. You start to believe that you cannot exist without this thing in your life.

This is the picture of addiction. It can take many forms. An innocuous addiction can range from constantly checking your email, to spending money unnecessarily, to using chocolate or cheeseburgers as tranquilizers. The options are endless. So endless that it is likely that most people, if not all, could identify at least one innocuous addiction in their life.

Personally, I have had more than my fair share of innocuous addictions. The one that claimed the biggest stake on my life was food. I used food to numb my feelings. I’d have a bad day and instead of processing it or asking God for help, I would go to the kitchen. It was easier. It felt good. Soon I was eating just because of the feeling it gave me—or lack of feeling. But it always left me with the same problems I started with. More than that, my habit left me with physical discomfort, and perhaps even more debilitating, a deep sense of shame. I would avoid people and begin to withdraw. My innocuous addiction, though it started rather harmlessly, was leading me into a lonely grave.

An innocuous addiction can range from constantly checking your email, to spending money unnecessarily, to using chocolate or cheeseburgers as tranquilizers.

So how did this innocuous addiction creep into my life? Well, it started small and got big, but it never would have begun if I didn’t have an emotional issue that I refused to deal with. I would not trust God to comfort me. I have found that much of how I relate to God is mirrored in the Bible. Take the Israelites, a nation with which God developed a very special relationship. He saved them constantly from their struggles, but they still did not trust Him. They worshipped other gods that were not even real! “They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood” (Hosea 4:12, NIV).

Just like the Israelites struggled with trusting God and left him for fake substitutes, I would use food as my substitute. But whatever we use as a substitute for God inevitably lets us down and harms us. There’s a great analogy in the Bible that demonstrates this. In Hosea, God refers to himself as Israel’s husband, indicating a relationship of faithfulness and trust. However, Israel has taken “lovers,” (the seemingly innocent things that the Israelites care about more than God). So God admonishes Israel for dressing up for her “lovers.” He tells the Israelites the truth, “You adorn yourself in vain. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life” (Jeremiah 4:30, NIV). That warning stings and is still relevant for those of us today who pursue “lovers.” In my addiction that verse spoke to me—I was seeking my own pleasure but it was destroying me.

I was seeking my own pleasure but it was destroying me.

So how do we know if what we’re doing in the service of pleasure will lead to addiction and spiritual death? Is watching television or eating chocolate dangerous? These behaviors in themselves do not go against scripture, but what if we put them before God? Whenever we do that, the object that attracts us becomes an idol in our lives, something that we worship in the place of God but that has no power to save us. We are repeating the history of the Israelites. This is not only dishonoring to God, but also robs us of the true joy that can only be found in Him.

In the throes of my addiction I had so little joy. My obsession with food robbed me of my relationship with God. And though I blamed myself, God showed me that he was on my side. He showed me through the Bible that he desperately wanted me to be free of my addiction, even more than I did. I finally realized that I could not shake my addiction alone. As long as I clung to the belief that I could be my own savior, all my attempts to break free only left me more ashamed of my failures.

God doesn’t want us to be slaves to things that hurt us. For this reason we ought to continually examine our lives to see how much influence we have given certain behaviors. Do we constantly wait for the approving words of others instead of asking God what he thinks of us? Do we rely on outward expressions of beauty instead of resting in the knowledge that God has already made us beautiful? Do we buy too much junk food after a stressful encounter instead of asking God to meet our needs for comfort and security? The key is to ask yourself: what need do I have in my life that I am trying to meet without God? What is making me blind to God right now? Finally, stop and think: does this behavior bring me true joy? If not, it might be time to ask God for help and to let it go.

For me, the book of Hosea offers a beautiful picture of how God responds to our addictions. God does not leave us by ourselves. He will help us to turn back to Him if we are willing. Aside from the many practical things we can do to address our innocuous addictions (find support from friends, foster healthy replacement behaviors, address the root of the problem with counseling), I believe that the single most important thing we can do is come as we are to God, “…a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17, NIV).

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Filed Under: Connect, God Talk Tagged With: Issue 7

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Happy Spring! Enjoy the new issue! #linkinbio Happy Spring! Enjoy the new issue! #linkinbio
Our striving to be like Jesus or do his work on ou Our striving to be like Jesus or do his work on our own is in vain. We can never hope to achieve the same level that Jesus was on while we are still here on Earth. We’re like little kids, struggling just to walk. But that’s why Jesus gave us an example of redeemed followers in the form of the Apostles, who were his close group of students here on Earth. He chose a group of broken, sinful men, and ultimately shaped them into the group responsible for continuing his ministry here on Earth. ⁠
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✍🏽: Tim VanDeWalker in "Running By Example" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's th "Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." –Desmond Tutu
The Bible tells us to live in the world, but not t The Bible tells us to live in the world, but not to become like it. The New Living Translation puts it this way, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Rom. 12:2a). Some have interpreted this as an instruction to reject anything that isn’t explicitly Christian. But I don’t think that’s what this verse is getting at. I think it means much more.⁠
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✍🏽: Lindsey Beharry in "Choosing Wisely" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
If you desire to serve, seek to form groups withou If you desire to serve, seek to form groups without age distinction. Maybe you want to form a group in your church. Avoid just inviting members from your age group. Seek out people older and younger than you to invite to meet together. Find that person who sits alone and talk to her or him. Instead of a focus on building groups that have the same characteristics to “relate” with one another, you center your discussion in the work of Christ. He will bring the group together. ⁠
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✍🏽: Russell Almand in "Community and Age Diversity" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
"If we put our faith in temporal things, they will "If we put our faith in temporal things, they will inevitably let us down. They were never meant to be enough for us. Not alone. When Barnum finally does hit bottom, he recognizes that his heart has been led astray, fooled into thinking that fame or fortune could satisfy him."⁠
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✍🏽: @slimkeman in "The Greatest Showman" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
"Porn. We are only now beginning to realize the ex "Porn. We are only now beginning to realize the extent of its effects on the brain, relationships, and society at a time when sexually explicit content is just a click away. Christians have recognized pornography’s negative impact for decades, yet it is still often considered a “male” problem within the Church. This can leave women who struggle with porn addiction feeling isolated and alone. The organization SheRecovery (formerly Dirty Girls Ministries) aims to change that and has become a resource for women with porn addiction. You can read more about their ministry at the link in our bio. ⁠
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✍🏽: Lisa Gagnon in "Dirty Girls Ministries" | Continue reading at newidentitymagazine.com⁠ by visiting the link in our bio and tapping on the image.⁠
"The presence of my sin reminds me of my great nee "The presence of my sin reminds me of my great need for grace, and good works are the outpouring of a grateful heart; being a good child is not a means of earning the favor of God."⁠
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"As Christians, we identify ourselves not only by "As Christians, we identify ourselves not only by how we handle our daily lives, much like those around us, but also by an added component: our faith. How we pray and worship and spend time with our fellow followers provides additional meaning to our lives."⁠
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Often I picture Jesus telling us to love others an Often I picture Jesus telling us to love others and not to judge. I forget that when he said, “Come follow me,” he wasn’t just inviting us to a strict set of rules but to a real and exciting life whether you turn out to be a pastor, a doctor, designer or simply “Dad.” Sometimes I forget one of his main messages was that he came to give us a better life than we could ever dream of—life to the fullest. Jesus wasn’t locking us down to a vocation or job title. It’s as if he was saying, “Real, vibrant life is available to you now. Following me, loving me and living like me is your real calling…the rest is just there to aid you in following, loving and living.”⁠
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Like Morpheus, I want to “show you how deep the Like Morpheus, I want to “show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” There is yet another parallel between the Christian story and The Matrix, simultaneously the most foundational and the most captivating. It’s that something which is missing, something which is not quite right with the world. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know that it’s there. At the outset of the first film, Neo is searching for it. Trinity asserts that “it’s the question that drives us.” Morpheus claims that “you can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes.” The question is: What if I’ve only ever scratched the surface of all that life has to offer? What if there is a deeper, truer current of reality, ever-present behind all of my life’s experiences, to which I might awaken at any moment?⁠
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"I’ve always been intrigued by Augustine because "I’ve always been intrigued by Augustine because we all struggle with temptations to sin. And we all struggle to live in a way that honors God. Like Augustine we all feel the tug of our past sins that say, 'Don’t you want to enjoy us?' And Augustine’s story relates to Galatians 5:16-26 where Paul tells us about how the Christian life is like a walk. In a way, walking is a metaphor for the Christian life." ⁠
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