Patrick Carnes, (a leading psychologist in the field of sex addiction) defines addiction perfectly. “Addiction is an illness of escape. Its goal is to obliterate, medicate, or ignore reality. It is an alternative to letting oneself feel hurt, betrayal, worry, and – most painful of all – loneliness.”
How true is this of the sex addict? How often have we turned to fantasy or pornography in order to escape the pain, loneliness, or even boredom of life? How many times have we convinced ourselves that our reality just isn’t good enough, we deserve better? We delude ourselves into believing we should be able to lust after some beauty on the internet instead of connecting with our wives. We deserve it!
When we think this way we are basically telling God He isn’t enough for us. We are saying that His gifts for us (our wives, our jobs, our homes, our reality) isn’t good enough, we need more. God refused to let the people of Israel enter the land of promise because of this attitude of unbelief (Hebrews 3:7-19). Will He treat us any differently?
In The Real
Denver Colorado
http://www.inthereal.com
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Two Sides To Surrender
So what does it mean to surrender? For many years my perception of surrender was a negative one – one associated with weakness, failure and defeat. If I was going to have victory over sin, I needed to fight, not surrender. I needed new spiritual weapons to sling around. Tucking my tail between my legs and rolling over didn’t seem like any solution to me. It seemed more like suicide.
I think it’s safe to say most people probably have a similar view of surrender, and this is no real surprise, we have probably had this view pounded into our heads ever since we can remember. Let me ask you this. Have you ever thought that maybe there are two sides to surrender, a positive and negative side? Maybe it all depends on what or whom we are surrendering to. Maybe that is what makes the difference. Think about it this way. If you are the little boy surrendering to the bully who is stealing your lunch money at school, then yes, surrender is a negative thing. If you are the little boy surrendering to your big brother who is going to pound that bully into the ground the next time he even looks at you funny, than surrender is a positive thing. The first is surrendering out of ignorance and fear, and the second is surrendering out of belief and trust. Do you see the difference? Let’s take a look at this from a spiritual perspective. Say the bully in the above scenario is Satan and our big brother is Jesus Christ. If we continue to surrender to Satan, by giving away ourselves to him, we will forever be his slave, but if we surrender to Jesus Christ, by allowing His Spirit to come into us and empower us, then we will forever be free from the hand of the evil one.
In The Real
Denver Colorado
http://www.inthereal.com
I think it’s safe to say most people probably have a similar view of surrender, and this is no real surprise, we have probably had this view pounded into our heads ever since we can remember. Let me ask you this. Have you ever thought that maybe there are two sides to surrender, a positive and negative side? Maybe it all depends on what or whom we are surrendering to. Maybe that is what makes the difference. Think about it this way. If you are the little boy surrendering to the bully who is stealing your lunch money at school, then yes, surrender is a negative thing. If you are the little boy surrendering to your big brother who is going to pound that bully into the ground the next time he even looks at you funny, than surrender is a positive thing. The first is surrendering out of ignorance and fear, and the second is surrendering out of belief and trust. Do you see the difference? Let’s take a look at this from a spiritual perspective. Say the bully in the above scenario is Satan and our big brother is Jesus Christ. If we continue to surrender to Satan, by giving away ourselves to him, we will forever be his slave, but if we surrender to Jesus Christ, by allowing His Spirit to come into us and empower us, then we will forever be free from the hand of the evil one.
In The Real
Denver Colorado
http://www.inthereal.com
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