All or Nothing: Breaking The Chains Of Sin
Contents:
A particularly powerful source of captivity is tradition. Traditions exist in every culture. In some countries, tribal traditions run deep. Some of these traditions are wonderful, preserving culture and defining social order. Other traditions are contrary to the gospel and priesthood government and, when followed blindly, result in captivity. Even individual and family traditions can lead to spiritual captivity.
For example, consider family traditions regarding the Sabbath.
How does your family feel when a major sports event conflicts with Church responsibilities? Yielding to unrighteous influences diminishes your freedom and amplifies the danger of captivity. Thus, we can choose liberty freedom and eternal life through Christ, or we can choose captivity and death according to the power of the devil see 2 Ne.
It is often said that we are free to choose whatever course we desire, but we are not free to avoid the consequences of that choice. Spiritual captivity rarely results from a single choice or event. More often, freedom is surrendered one small step at a time until the way to regain that freedom is obscured.
A young man once pleaded with me for help. He had become addicted to pornography , which he accessed via his home computer. It burdened him with such guilt that he could not feel good about attending church or participating in priesthood assignments. It adversely affected his social life. He was powerfully drawn to spend hour upon hour alone in front of the computer viewing that which he acknowledged brought only frustration and despair. It was as if he were chained by a master whose only purpose was to make him miserable.
He did not decide at once to become a slave to the computer screen. Only after he was enchained by his addiction did he recognize that he had willingly submitted to captivity.
If we are succumbing to spiritual captivity, we may not recognize the growing loss of freedom in our lives. Yet the more spiritual captivity we experience, choose, or permit, the less freedom of choice we feel in matters of spiritual importance. Is there any hope in breaking the chains of addictions? Since many Christians struggle with the sins of addiction they begin to doubt their own salvation. What can a believer do to escape…to overcome their sin? If anyone could overcome sin, surely it was the great apostle Paul.
He wrote more books in the New Testament and founded more churches than any other apostle. Even though this great man of faith was a spiritual giant, he struggled with sin too. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. You are not alone. You are in good company — with Paul. The Ten Commandments say we should not bear false witness, but Christians are still not fully sanctified….. Even though we are new creatures in Christ 2 Cor 5: For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. He acknowledges it and gets back up.
He has the desire to do the right thing but guess what: He still can not carry it out…in his own strength that is. This takes the very power of God: God the Holy Spirit Rom A train wreck, a sinner, a wretch but the good news is that Paul realizes that the good he wants to do is what he is not doing…and he keeps on doing it! This is strong evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in him, convicting him of his sin.
A person who is not born-again has no true desire to do what is right nor are they convicted when they do evil things. He understands that he is battling the old nature. The Saul is still in there but Paul is not settling for it now, neither is he allowing to let is slide. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. The Law is a mirror, showing us our sins and he recognizes the evil being there with him James 1: He wants to do good and that is a sentence full of hope, not despair. We might lose battles but the war has truly been won already.
The law was made clear to Paul by his conscience Rom 2: Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? He is subject to eternal death without a rescuer. What can this wretched man do?! What can we do!? He wants to help you overcome the powerful sins of your life and your strong addictions, the mighty fortress where we have no chance at all. God desires to help us and He is more than able and He is absolutely willing to. Imagine the God of the universe. He created the entire universe, all the stars, the galaxies, the sun…everything!
He knows the trillion times trillion number of stars all by name. Now is anything really to hard for God?! We have no power in ourselves but the Holy Spirit is God and the very power of God working in you. The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge to God that you can not overcome this by your own power. That is exactly what He has been waiting to hear. Victory will only come in defeat. You are in over your head but God is over all things.
Pray day and night for the help you need. God can deliver you…He did me! But it took time. You will slip and fall but get back up, pray for forgiveness and ask God to cut off all the sources of your drug addiction, if you are addicted to pornography, get rid of the Internet.
What He is saying is to cut off the source of your addiction or sin. If you are addicted to drugs, turn in the illegal drug dealers. Drastic yes, but this is what it must take. God can do all things…He created the universe and He can help deliver you and He desires to help you overcome this addiction but you may have to make some painful decisions.
The converse of that is that we can do nothing in our own strength.
How Can I Overcome Addiction And Sin In My Life?
Sometimes these demons are mighty strongholds of the mind. The very fact that you are grieved over your addiction or sin is evidence that the Holy Spirit is not only in you but working in you, for the Spirit convicts us of sin and sanctification is a lifelong process. The very fact that you searched for this over the Internet is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in you. This is no coincidence. God brought you to this article today for a very specific purpose, a reason, to be a path for your feet — a light for your life.
It starts with God and ends with God. I am a pastor today but let me tell you that I was in prison, hooked on drugs, stole, and was headed down the broad path of hell. It took me years and years to finally get over this, yet God never, ever gives up on me and He will not give up on you. Like the Prodigal Father, He kept looking down the road for me to come to Him. He is looking down that road today, waiting, watching, for you. What I finally did to break the addiction was to pray that all the sources or suppliers of my drugs were removed from me or that they would move…whatever it took.
God heard my prayer and answered it. It took me a very long time and today I am clean and sober but I am still a train wreck, a sinner and I will never overcome all sin in this life. The fact that you are grieved over your sin is a great sign that the Holy Spirit is trying to show you your sin.
Once a believer repents, this does not mean that they will not fall back into sin. No, we will sin again and again…but turning from our sin we will begin to loathe it all the more. Yes, we need to repent, but we sin every day and every day we can begin and end the day by falling on our face, hands, and knees before God to ask for forgiveness. Would you like to get the daily question in your FB messenger?
Just click the button below to get started. Graduate work at Moody Bible Institute. His books are inexpensive paperbacks that are theological in nature: Read them in the archive below. If you like what you're reading, you can get free daily updates through the RSS feed here. Thanks for stopping by! Im struggle with addiction of porn and mastubation I need help I keep doing it and I want to do good again..
I suggest you follow the steps given and in this article is says you should find a Christian women who you trust to be your accountability partner. You must follow the steps give and not give us.
Have you wondered in a country like ours where there are churches on every corner why there arent more Christians changing the world and standing up for. Breaking the Chains of Sin Becky S. Morgan, Howard K. We've talked of slavery, lovers, chainsandlifestyles, butthrough it all we've kind of danced around the.
Greetings In the name of Jesus…I have a question when I pray to God about my addiction which is porn I dont know how to say it to God because I just feel so guilty that I dont even know where to start praying.. I usualy attend altercall at church when it something similar to my problem.. I need prayer for addiction to sex and drinking.
Thank You so much. This article means alot to me. Thank you so much for writing this article. I am addicted to porn, and keep on doing it, but am growing up in a christian home, and became a believer last year. It was never like me to do these evil things. And i keep on doing them, even though i know this is very wrong. I can tell he is dong a great work in me, but i know i cant do so when addicted to porn. I am to imbaressed to talk about it to someone face to face, because i know its very wrong. Could you give me some advice? Thanks again for this article.
I can really see the power of God working in you, just from this. I hope it helps you but within the article are practical applications that you can take to help you overcome this sin. You must swallow your pride and talk to your pastor or find a Christian man, an older trusted Christian, who can be your accountability partner. Do you access pornography over the Internet? Then have a friend put a password protected filter on it. Please read this article which is full of steps you can take that addresses your sin very specifically at this link: I will pray for you my beloved brother in Christ.
I need prayer for addiction to Jealous, hate, doubt, fear and sever depression have been in this battle for most of my life,i pray for Gods grace and deliverance and then go right back to it. I would do as this article suggests. Talk to your pastor, find an accountability partner, and cut off all the sources of your anger.
- INGLÉS MASTER, Parte 2 (34002) (Series para leer y escuchar - INGLÉS MASTER) (Spanish Edition).
- Account Options.
- Los Cocodrilos (Spanish Edition)!
- Columbus and the Age of Exploration!
- Christianity in Evolution: An Exploration.
What are you so angry about? Jesus died for us while we were still ungodly, wicked, and His natural enemies Rom 5: Some churches have a group that meets for these things so connect with one, find a mentor, talk to your pastor, ask for the prayers of the saints in your church as unspoken needs and then trust God to work in you.
Thank God for this article. Just moments before reading this I fell again to my lengthy addiction to pornography. I had gone about a week clean which is good for me as I usually need to watch it daily. I struggle believing that the Lord forgives me after such weakness and blatant disregard for his word.
But I always ask for it anyways. I got ride of my smartphone and put covenant eyes on my computer but I still find ways around it. Please pray for me brothers and sisters. I will pray for those who requested as well. I feel hopeless and bound for hell because I backslid and got myself into this mess. I live in constant fear and panic attacks. I want to die. Have you tried contacting your pastor? However, someone with the true disease of alcoholism for example , should they return to alcohol, even 10 years later, will quickly discover that their drinking will return to where it would have been had they never stopped.
I know lots of mature people with many years of sobriety. Your characterization is simply inaccurate, I think. The people I know who work the program do very well, nor was I implying that an alcoholic — once free from alcohol could or should have alcohol ever again. Yes, it is a disease with deep roots in our nervous systems.
At the same time, how do people introduce themselves in meetings? We can argue semantics but what the person is saying is, in effect. The point is that while I think the 12 steps are wonderful they do nothing to address the fundamental issue we all have: This is a question of identity. This is why people cycle in and out of rehab at an astonishing rate despite exposure to the 12 Steps. This is why many people, despite working a program to the best of their ability, working real hard, fail and fail again. Not until we have an identity based on a secure attachment to God can we recover in any real sense, because our actions are never based on the information we have at hand, but rather on who we know we are.
We are not our disease. I would suggest that only Jesus could actually become our sin, our disease. Even in this we were spared, we just became enslaved to sin. I appreciate your wisdom and experience also. I would be much more willing to say that AA fails insofar as the addicted never really proceeds in the steps. I personally am very excited to find another way. Sharon, Again, our experiences differ.
I think folks cycle in and out, not because of the program, but because human beings fail — a lot. Sophia, My support of 12 step programs is, of course, not the same as the Orthodox faith. Webber does something quite Orthodox with them that you might find very enriching. One of these people has been clean for over 30 years! Recently a loved one who was struggling talked with this person about deep experiences of unhappiness. It is an amazing program for those who can humbly practice it, one day at a time.
I think this is what the AA language reveals. AA is a very moralistic program, The following steps needs superhuman strength to do Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all…Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others….. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. It leads unhealthy scrupulosity.
One Small Step at a Time
Dear Father Stephen I was wondering if you have any further insight to the statements regarding the folks in AA who introduce themselves as alcoholics and whether that is saying they are their sin. My dad has been sober through the 12 Steps of AA for about 30 years. This past year we read the Fr Meletius book about the 12 Steps together. My understanding is that naming the disease is essential for the addict because most have lived a life of denial. What has been on my mind the last few days is him saying that, looking back, he realized it was not so much that he was working the steps himself even though at the time he thought he was but that he was allowing members to work the steps on him.
God works through people is what he always says. In your experience of counseling at AA is this something you also notice? The first three steps of AA are realizing that life is unmanageable and being powerless over alchohol,, coming to believe that a Power greater than one self can restore them to sanity and making a decision to turn their will and lives over to the care of God. AA is a hospital for the addict. After almost thirty years my dad still introduces himself at meetings as an alcoholic and he feels no shame or guilt for it. The Church is a hospital for the soul. Every week we say before Communion that we are the chief among sinners.
The healing of AA for my dad is that he actually believes he is an alchoholic. I do not know if I believe I am the worst of sinners, but I probably am! Now, my dad is a more seasoned member working the steps on others…. AA has given him the gift of sobriety and humility.
He recently also told me when I congratulated him on more years of sobriety than he had lived, that the length of sobriety is not important, but the quality of sobriety is. AA is not a Church, nor do they claim to be, but there is transformative healing and authenticity in the Steps. The recovery of the alchoholic can heal entire families. Sometimes the darkness is unbearable, and there is a cycle of awareness of your sin that is so strong and is truly a gift, but an abyss of despair that opens with it and is easy to fall into, and then you feel even more despair because you are in despair and this is also your sin….
In light of these last two posts, I was wondering how one should approach confession. In other words, I feel most sorry for my sins when I am ashamed of them. Perhaps the fact that I continue to repeat the same type of sins over and over proves that this attitude is ineffective.
Can you offer insight on this, or point me towards a post about it? Someone could say, by the same token, that the Scriptures are highly moralistic. It simply depends on how things are being applied. It is not inherent. Victoria, I think there is no difference between a recovering alcoholic introducing themselves as an alcoholic and a Christian introducing themselves as a sinner. I am not my sin.
Neither is an alcoholic his disease. But the nature of the disease requires the kind of vigilance that does not forget that the disease is always lurking. They are the words of saints, who, following the way of the Cross, have learned to bear a little shame and can say these things without toxic repercussions, but in full unity with the self-emptying sacrifice of Christ.
There is no way to heal shame by running away. John of the Ladder. Even in psychological therapy, the shame has to be acknowledged and confronted and dealt with. Denying it only makes it worse. In light of these articles on shame, etc. Thank you so much for your comments on Girard, and for your recommendation and link! I look forward to reading! I find some endless clues in Girard particularly for Orthodoxy… would be an interesting discussion. PS I too find 12 Steps very helpful, they are kind of a step-by-step repentance that can be applied to any problem IMO.
I think there is a mystery here that may not translate into words here. Even Jesus took on our sin, became sin for us. We are supposed to humble ourselves, allow ourselves to be emptied so that He can fill us.
Breaking the Chains of Sin. And it is this shackled existence of bondage that Christ destroys in His Pascha. Perhaps this is another way of describing the Pelagianism you mention. I appreciate your wisdom and experience also. I need Deliverance from addictions to food gluttony and alcohol drunkenness.
In the end we must trust Him without fully understanding. It notes that only if we voluntarily embrace that identity shame , can it be acceptable, and can we be healed. By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: Hugh, Posting blocks of Scripture is not the same as commenting. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. I feel hopeful with this thought and I can feel it better concerning other.
It flows well with the 12 step concept principles before personalities. At first I was going to color it black then hand it in, but decided against that idea. Instead I used bands of color representing emotions wrapped around the body. Once finished it looked like a colorful mummy. However, it was a break through for me to identify feelings. First it was pointed out to me that I left off feet, hands, mouth, ears, and nose. This had symbolic meaning to the counselors. I did identify my eyes and heart. Confusion and fear dominated my eyes and head.
My heart felt anger. My torso and legs were alternating bands of shame and guilt. The counselors asked if they could keep the drawing and of course I said yes. I wish now I had it. Anyway this drawing identified me at the time. The skewed concept caused me to be very fearful of God. My church experience taught of a loving and forgiving God. I guess I held my family in higher esteem than church. Even after all the self awareness I have continued to act in ways that have caused me shame and guilt. And I will at times let it haunt me to this day. Many times I cannot comprehend forgiveness from God.
I can for any other person but not myself this maybe indicative of pride and self-pity. It is a terrible way to live. A heavy chain to bear. Many times I have envisioned myself , my soul and spirit locked up behind bars unable to be free to fully express myself whether as God sees me or as I see myself. I have come to terms that my thoughts, feelings, and intellect can not be trusted. I can only hope for the freedom I seek in older years or in death. Your email address will not be published.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Nostalgia for Paradise February 15, Kalomiros on the Orthodox Life January 21, You Are Not Your Sin. Do You Know God? Father, you are speaking to my heart. And this is love. Love is inherently full of repentance. Say it to the wrong person and drive them into madness.
Stephen, I think you are doing so.