“Faith Based Sober Living Principles For Men And Women From Jesus Christ”

The word sin describes one as missing the mark, but the word addiction describes one as being excessive and compulsive. The two words have different meanings. In other words, to sin is to be incorrect. To be addicted is to be compelled. The Word of God refers to excess as being bad when it is applied to the things of the world such as, drinking, rioting etc.  But when it is applied to loving God it becomes morally correct.

For instance in Matthew 22:37 Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”. This is a command to go all out and be obsessed and compelled; this is excessive, but not sin, not incorrect.

 Addictive behavior is referred to as any activity, substance, object, or behavior that has become the major focus of a person's life to the exclusion of other activities, or that has begun to harm the individual or others physically, mentally, or socially.

  This does not give insight as to what addictive behavior means to God. However, the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us a look into the heart of God on this issue.

 In Matthew 14:44-46 Jesus said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened to treasure hid in a field; when a man has found it, he hides it, and for the joy of it goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking awesome pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

  Now a lot of people would consider this very odd behavior, but with God it is only bad behavior when you sell everything or give up all for the things of this present world.

The Word of God also compels us to separate ourselves from the things of the world that separate us from God: When we do this we are sometimes considered anti-social by unbelievers, because we no longer take part in certain activities or conversations. We are not alienated because we choose to isolate ourselves from people but because some people choose to isolate themselves from the Truth that is in Jesus Christ.

The Scripture says in 1 Peter 4:1-4, “Forasmuch then as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousing, and abominable idolatries. They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming:”

Keep in mind excess for Christ will not bring self inflicted harm upon one’s self or inflict harm on others as excess in the things of the world, such as drugs, alcohol and other like things will.  In fact excessiveness in the will of God through Jesus Christ will bring love to people, encourage people, and genuinely bless them. Now if people are not following Christ then our excessiveness in him will annoy them, turn them off and sometimes cause them to do things to hurt us. That is because the unbelievers addiction to the world is in direct conflict with the believers addiction to God in Christ Jesus.

 If you are addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, or any worldly excessive lust, then you have become contrary to Christ. If you are addicted to loving God and you have a thirst and hunger (desire) for righteousness, you are in line with the Gospel of Jesus Christ who said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”  Remember put your focus on Jesus Christ, set your mind on things above, things in heaven where your reward is if you diligently seek God through his Son Jesus. Be addicted to righteousness, to seeking the will of God through Jesus Christ. Jesus was committed 100% to doing his Father’s will. Being born again doesn’t mean your personality goes away. You were created for a purpose in the body of Christ, and to have a sincere and passionate drive to fulfill that purpose. Being born again does not extinguish that fire and drive that has been instilled in you by God, but it brings it in line with God’s will. It gives you new focus. Jesus Focus! The best way to recover yourself from the snare of the Devil, is to Focus on Jesus. Focus on doing what Jesus tells us to do in every situation. It is the will of God in your life. Satan your enemy wants you to focus on your recovery. God wants you to focus on his Son, and you will recover. Remember what you focus on is what you will be focused on.