You Alone

Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life [you are our only hope]. John 6:68

Amplified Bible....."The Christian is called to a life of holy longing." John Eldredge

What I write today may fly in the face of the beliefs that some hold, particularly as concerns addictions. I base what I write upon His Word, and what I have experienced and continue to experience as I trust in His Word. In no way do I demean various recovery programs. They serve a real need, and I help minister in one here at our church, but I believe there are root truths that we must know and live out in order to have full freedom from those things, whatever they may be, that seek to hold us in chains.

John Eldredge, in his book, "The Journey Of Desire," has written some very challenging words. "To live in Christ is to live with an ache. Every addiction comes from the attempt to get rid of the ache." If this is true, and I believe that it is, then a great part of our culture is seeking counterfeit means to get rid of the ache. We were created for intimate fellowship with God. Adam and Eve lived in this fellowship. Their sin broke it. The fulfillment they were created to know was lost by it, and they have passed that loss down to all the human race. We are born fallen and separated from Him, while also experiencing a "holy ache," a longing for the fellowship that has been lost and which we were created for. As a result, though we are not conscious of it, we spend our lives looking for some way to fill that emptiness, and they are all illegitimate and at best, only mask the ache and longing. This is what gives rise to addictions and the number of things we can become addicted to are nearly as vast as the universe. Drugs, alcohol, sex, food, relationships, sports, TV, entertainment, clothing, jobs, religion, and yes, ministry. For the one who identifies as a believer, the last two may be the most deadly of all. Religion is at root what men have created in order to explain God. God created not religion, but relationship. In the fall, that was lost, and humankind has spent huge amounts of energy through man made religious systems trying to get back to Him. We have tried so hard in this that the majority have missed the means, the only means He established for that relationship to be restored; Jesus Christ alone. We work very hard at this and all the seemingly infinite other means of filling the void. All of them fail. As Peter said to Jesus, "Where can we go? You alone have the words of Life." Despite this truth, we have tried innumerable other "places," addictions, to go in order to find life, and all they do is steal life, not give it.

I think I know something of both addiction and of the holy ache. I spent huge amounts of energy trying to satisfy the ache, and all I received in return was bondage to the various kinds of things I became addicted to. None of those things ever gave more than momentary relief and a false satisfaction, and all of them left me more lost than before, and with an ever deepening longing. I spent a great deal of time in Eldredge's journey of desire. All the paths led me nowhere but into deeper longing and deeper darkness.....until I met the King, Jesus Christ.

Here's where so many who come to Christ stumble and struggle. It's true that all things are dealt with at the cross of Christ, but we must continue the journey, all the while living at the foot of His cross. All the counterfeit desires need to be brought to it, nailed to it, and then we die to them. At the cross, we see the futility of all of them, and the all-encompassing ability of Christ to fill in our hearts what they never could. The reasons that we embraced these counterfeit desires in the first place can be buried very deeply in our spirits. At the cross, all of them are surrendered to Him, whether we know them or not, and at the cross, He destroys their power over us, and fills the emptiness that they never could.

The most immediately threatening addictions in my life were dealt with when I came to Him, the most damaging being drugs. Yet there were others, buried deeply in my heart and mind that needed to be rooted out, dealt with, healed, and me being made more whole in the process. I found more and more freedom in Him. I still am, but there is one "addiction" that changed my life more than all the others, and that was my constant search of finding love. I thought it could be satisfied if I could just meet the right person, especially after suffering the devastation of divorce. Yet I never could, so I just kept searching....until my search led me to where I needed to be all along...at His cross. In that place I surrendered the search and the longing for love in return for the fullness of His love. In that, the power of the search and the longing was broken, and the fullness of His love set me free. I had always known that He loved me, but for the first time, I was fully experiencing that love.

This is what must happen in all of our addictions. We must know beyond doubt that we can be free, fully free, in Him. Our dependency is not in a group, a program, or anything else. It is upon Him. We can do all things, including being completely free, in Him. We can because He's the One who makes it so. If we can believe that we can receive that. Can you, we, believe it? If not, where will we go? He alone has the words of life. His life.

Blessings,

Pastor O