I am writing this piece to encourage you, who have been suffering from addiction, that everything’s gonna be alright. God hates sin but He is patient waiting for you to come to repentance.
It’s easy to be judgmental or critical when we see someone repeating the same sin, habit, or mistake over and over. What we fail to understand is that something led that person into such sin, weakness, habit, or mistake. I was once addicted to certain habit for over 10 years so I know what I am talking about. It took the Grace of God, His help through discipline to come out of that habit.
My message for you, who is struggling to stop or quit bad habit (like jealousy, pornography, gossiping, drinking, drugs, quick-tempered, masturbation, sexual immorality, greed, homosexuality, etc) is that do not think or believe that that is how or what God created you to be.
God created you in His image and likeness. Know that everything about God is perfect. In the scripture, there is a story about a farmer who went to sow good seeds in his field but an enemy came to sow bad ones at night. In other words, God deposited good things in you. However, Satan came to sow bad ones in you at night. Night refers to those times when you were far from God. That is when you were not taking your prayer life seriously, when you did not spend enough time reading His word, or you were dormant.
The good news, however, is that God knows you are in that situation. Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy to set you free. You can get up on your feet once again. You can be made whole again. Paul said “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
What I will encourage you to do is that keep moving forward. Keep taking one step ahead of the other. Do not quit. It does not matter how many times you fall down, what matters is your zeal to change from that habit. I will liken this to a little child who is learning to walk. Each time he falls down at an attempt, he says to himself that “I will try again”. That child may fall down a thousand times but at the next try, everything turns to be alright for that kid. I believe you can make it.
Commit yourself to prayer and fasting, and learn to discipline yourself by staying away from doing the little things that lead you to sin, that habit, or mistake. Remember that God has not destroyed you yet because he does not want you to die in your sin.
I remember what changed my situation was that I made a bold decision to quit. I fasted and prayed and started saying No to thoughts that led me into that habit. I exercised self-control. It was not easy at first but as I kept moving one step ahead of the other without looking back at the many times I fell, but looking up to Jesus, I dominated that habit.
God will be your strength as you make decision today to quit in Jesus’ Name.
I know you can
I will conclude with the words of Bishop Clarence E. Mcclendon;
Keep on moving forward
For God is going to what He said
As a matter of fact
Even if you failed the first time
Get up
And do it again
And this time it’s going to work
Because this is the hour of visitation
Uplifting Christ 