The Choice Between Death and Life

Will we live or will we die?
Will we shirk the work or get up and try?
When there’s addiction,
We really need to know,
It’s honesty that will free us,
Only through recovery will we grow.
The key to success,

Is how we’re perceived,

So pray to God Almighty,
And stop being deceived!

***

Every article I write has an intention, whether I know it at the time or not. One of the most powerful truths in all of life is this one; the fight of evil to steal and kill and destroy the good:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

— Words of Jesus from John 10:10 (NRSV)

Addictions steal, kill and destroy our lives. Jesus makes all things new, welling up to the abundance of our lives.

Addiction is a thief. It has no good purpose. It will steal our hope, kill our joy, and inevitably it will destroy our relationships.

Addiction steals our hope. When our hope is stolen we no longer have a viable vision for the present or future. Addiction substitutes true hope with a deluded vision. Addiction will make us so confused we will begin to believe ardently and aggressively in the deluded vision and we won’t even know the true hope has been substituted. There can be no good outcome.

Jesus is the true hope we can build our lives and our future on.

Addictions kill our joy. What may have given us happiness, previously, no longer does. We look forward to the wrong things and we begin to hate right things; virtue begins to disgust us. Envy reigns. And we strive even harder to pretend we are happy, when we are actually the saddest we have ever been.

Jesus shows us how we can redeem joy even out of hardship.

Addictions destroy our relationships. Suddenly, without warning, we cannot get on with people as we used to; this is certainly the case as far as substance abuse is concerned. People become more pawns for the addict’s exploitation than individual persons to be loved. To the addict people are either enablers or enemies. Sooner or later relationships will be burned as if they were never valuable.

Jesus gives us the ability to love those we find it hard to love.

***

The antithesis is the abundant life that Jesus promises for those who will truly dedicate their lives to him, our Saviour and Lord and King, one day at a time. But God can only work where there is a full and consistent and unconditional surrender.

The Hope of the World is the one and only living God; Heavenly Father, his slain, resurrected, and glorified Son, and the Holy Spirit living in the believer – the Godhead three-in-one. God will deliver every honest and committed disciple. And, still, their best hope is to come!

***

Addiction is a thief. It will steal our hope, kill our joy, and inevitably destroy our relationships. Jesus’ abundant life is the only answer.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.