True Woman - The Anatomy of Addiction

The Anatomy of Addiction

When we partake of things that are addictive, just a little bit doesn’t satisfy. We want more—and then we need more. We can become enslaved to many things:

• prescription drugs
• food & overeating
• gambling & computer games
• pornography & romance novels
• television & soap operas
• spending & shopping

The desire itself may not be inherently wrong. The problem comes in when that desire becomes a demand and we find ourselves giving in to the temptation to fulfill it in an illicit way.*

Listen to or read more from “The Anatomy of Addiction”

From Titus 2 we read the basis for this devotional:

³ Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, ⁴and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

I was wondering where Nancy Leigh DeMoss was going with the whole Addiction thing, until she pointed me to the "slaves to much wine" that women are not supposed to be and then I went AH...that's where the addiction thing comes in at.

We are not to be addicted to "much wine"...or much anything for that matter.

As believers we are supposed to want God more than anything else. More than our hubbies, more than our children, more than our critters, our computer, our tv, our smoking, our drinking, our food, our books our....... the list can go on and on.

What do you want the most?

What does your life show that you want the most of?

If you are a believer and you want God the most, and your life signals something different....make some changes. Not saying it will be easy...but do it anyways. Everything else will eventually thank you.

For me it means monitoring my computer time. I could live at my computer if I could! (but I can't and shouldn't). I need to play with my boy, do the dishes, spend time with the Lord God, spend time with my hubby and really LISTEN to him, and so forth. I love email and playing games and answering questions on various groups and ..... the list could go on and on. BUT GOD calls me to something more. he calls me to glorify him in all that I do. And the question I need to ask him is this: is what I am doing right now.... glorifying him? What is this teaching my boy? What would it teach his perhaps future wife? What is this telling my hubby?

Helps put things into perspective.

Being addicted to something is not an illness, it's just the result of making a series of ill-considered choices. Nancy says:

The word addiction is a modern term. It’s really not my favorite term because, the way it’s used today, it tends to imply that we have no responsibility or culpability, that this is something we can’t help.

We’re not saying that. We’re saying we make choices that lead to bondage and strongholds in our lives. The biblical concept is that of enslavement. That’s why it says, “Don’t be ‘slaves to much wine’” in the translation that I use.

The only path out from our slavery, our bondage is prayer and making better choices....difficult though they may be...make better choices, ask your self those tough questions...who is this serving...myself? my family? God? Then make better decisions.