Addiction is real. Whether it’s food, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. It is miserable and it is real. The good news is that if you are struggling with addiction, you can stop fighting addiction today, right now.

It’s Not All In Your Head

When I began studying Dr. Jason Fung’s books about Diabetes and Obesity and other dietary diseases, I began finding out that our bodies react to our actions. When Dr. Fung explained that we are not fighting willpower but our own bodies in the battle of the bulge, I began realizing that I could stop fighting addiction to food and start taking back my health. I also noticed the correlation between the hormones our bodies secrete in response to our food intake with other addictions or diseases.

All Addictions and Diseases

I am not a scientist or a doctor, but I have read and studied a lot about various subjects. Homosexuality, pornography, obesity, depression, drug and alcohol addictions including smoking are all horrible “necessities” that have a pull that no one can really understand unless you have experienced it. It is so easy to judge other people and say that they should just stop doing things that are detrimental to their own wellbeing and to the wellbeing of everyone around them. It is really a vicious cycle though for anyone trapped in any of these and many other phenomenons.

I understand that not everyone who smokes or is obese, homosexual, etc. considers these lifestyle choices to be addictions or diseases. If that is really what you want for yourself, you get to choose. I “loved” my cigarettes until I realized the damage they were causing to my health and everyone around me. This post is not to condemn or judge anyone! Jesus loves you right now just as you are! There is, however, plenty of evidence of the destruction to people’s health and wellbeing associated with these and other addictions.

What I Hate; That Do I

The Apostle Paul wrote the following Scripture that I copied and pasted straight out of the King James Version of the Holy Bible:

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 7:14-25

I have heard people say that Paul was talking about before salvation and all kinds of things. I am just thrilled to know that the great Apostle Paul that wrote about two-thirds of the New Testament in the Bible wrote this struggle down for your benefit and for mine!

You Can!

The very next verse is Romans 8:1. Paul explains that “there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Don’t let the last part of this verse get you down! You can stop fighting addiction knowing that there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus! You can walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh!

Renew Your Mind

In Romans 12, right after Paul tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, he tells us how. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind! You can stop fighting addiction today, right now, by beginning to renew your mind and allowing yourself to be transformed. It is so simple that Andrew Wommack calls it effortless change. All you have to do is seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness and everything is already yours!

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33

Yes, I know that “all these things” in this verse is talking about material things, but that’s not all! God promises that when we seek Him, we will find Him! He is the great “I am,” more than enough, all in all!

Pray and Repent

Once you start reading the Bible, you can pray or ask God to explain it to you. When you are reading the Bible, you are listening to God. You are worshipping God in spirit and in truth. It is God’s goodness that leads you to repentance. To repent is just to submit your ways and thoughts to God’s ways and thoughts. When you read something in the Bible that doesn’t line up with your life, thoughts, or experiences, you can pray to turn from those things and submit to God and His ways. It really is that simple!

Stop Fighting Addiction

You can stop fighting addiction, and start experiencing freedom and the abundant life Jesus wants you to have. Start looking at yourself the way God sees you. He created you in His image. He is a Spirit. That is why the Bible says you are now a new creature in Christ and that you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Done! You are already the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus if you have life eternal by receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Romans 3:21-24

Know Yourself!

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

This verse tells us that we are three-part beings just as our Creator is Three in One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Knowing this helps us to understand how we are already new creatures in our spirits, but we must renew our minds. The mind is part of our soul: Mind, will, and emotions. Our spirit and soul are so entwined that we must allow the Word of God to separate them. Our hearts are made up of our spirit and soul and that is how our hearts can be divided without our even knowing it. If we don’t renew our minds to line up with what God says about us then we will stay divided and tossed around with every wind of doctrine.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

Addiction is Really a Distraction

Addiction, sickness, sin, disease and everything else that the enemy strikes at us with are all distractions to keep us from seeking God. And if the enemy can deceive us into thinking that God is somehow trying to use these things to “teach us” or “discipline us” or “punish us” oh how much better for him because we will submit to the devil and his weapons instead of submitting to God and His goodness! When we resist the devil, he has to flee. If we are resisting God in our ignorance, we are completely distracted from His goodness that leads us to repentance.

Know God

Get in the Word and get to know who God really is to stop fighting addiction. Fighting addiction is distracting you from fighting the good fight. God has already equipped you with every good thing for every good work. The more you get to know God, the more you will want to stop fighting addiction and start walking in the victory Jesus has already provided!

Read about how I repented from being a lazy glutton, and God was able to begin a transformation in that area of my life in my post, Ditched the Drugs.