Unchained

1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

Almost everyone I know is addicted to something, from work to porn to coffee, we say we can’t live without it but I say sometimes we need to live without it. Now, I had an addiction myself that no one knew about, not even my own family. I felt too ashamed, and guilty, which were fitting but since I never spoke up this never got the attention it desperately needed. If I first spoke up about it I wonder what would have happened, but now that’s too late.  So what was my addiction? Porn. 

I’ve seen so many videos but all it took was one. When I was about 11 years old (a little over a decade now) these boys my sister called brothers were watching this one video, I had no clue what it was at the time. All I knew was I saw a girl naked. For a while, I didn’t know how to get to a video like that, but I searched for it. Looking back, that’s what we do with addiction, we search for it. Once I found it, I would keep going back to it, until it became part of my day-to-day, part of my routine. That’s our biggest problem with addiction of any kind- we go to it time after time when what we really need to do is to walk away. For those of us who struggle with any kind of addiction, we know this is a lot easier said than done.

Why can’t I just walk away? I asked myself this question nearly on a daily basis. I begged God to take this from me and when that didn’t work I tried to justify it. But, in the end every time, without fail I felt guilty and ashamed afterward. Now I’m not going to tell you the ‘12 steps to recovery’ there are several others that will and if you’re truly searching for recovery it’s readily available. Many churches and other local organizations have programs to help. What I will tell you is I don’t believe there is recovery without vulnerability. Tell someone. You don’t have to carry the weight of this burden alone when others are willing and able to help.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

The hardest part of recovery is when you’re truly trying to turn away from an addiction. It seems temptation happens more often, urges are stronger, and we say to ourselves just this one last time, and the last time turns into two times, then ten, before we know it we’re back to the beginning. I can say first hand this is probably one of the most difficult things anyone can do, and those who have overcome addiction are tremendously strong. Through prayer, devotion, and discipline we can overcome this, but only with the help of God.

We can all reclaim our life, when times get hard or temptation presents itself, open your bible, read it, and  pray a prayer like this:

Father God, Dad, I know through you and your mercy you have led me here, you planned my life even before you made the heavens and the earth, I know the wonders you’ve done but I’ve come to humbly ask that you take away the desires to (            ) because it distracts me and takes away time from you. I know I could do so much more for you without this so I’m giving it all to you so that I can do good work for you. Amen.

**If you are a man struggling specifically with an addiction to pornography check out Mercy Road Church Outpost page and for the Renewed Man https://mercyroad.churchcenter.com/groups/outposts/the-renewed-man.  If you are struggling with other addictions, tell your doctor, call 211 for local meetings in your area, or search online. If you need help finding a recovery program contact us at themercytable,in@gmail.com and we will do our best to help find one for you.** 

Written by: Jay Sea of Untable Talk