Many of us have either stated or heard others say, “I have an addictive personality.” This statement leads one to believe that just some of us are prone to addictive behaviors.
While it may be true that as individuals some of us may be more prone to certain addictions than others, the truth is we all have “addictive personalities.”
Addiction is the condition of being habitually occupied with or involved with something on a regular or dependent basis.
An addiction involves the engagement in a behavior where one has strong cravings which causes them to have difficulty in limiting that activity or stopping it, despite its potential harmful consequences.
In our addictions, whatever it may be, we are grasping for what was lost in the garden, TRUE LIFE, AND IDENTITY!
When our addictions begin, we feel alive. Why? Because in our state of being in the flesh, there is only death. That is our state before Christ gives us His life, which is true eternal life. So, we search and search for the life that we subconsciously know we need, and we look to the things in this world for that life. These things bring excitement at first, but it is a fast burn.
Soon after the addiction starts, we now identify ourselves with it. No matter how sick the identity, it is an identity none the less. Others also begin to identify us with it. This is how we so easily put labels on each other.
None of us plan to be addicted. It is just the most natural, human thing to do is search for life in this world until we encounter true life, JESUS!
Once we have His life living in us, we have true life. But the memory is still there of the habits from our years of searching for real life.
We have such a patient God. He loves us tenderly while we are learning how to navigate being truly alive in Him.
God once told me that my addictions were like false lovers. These old, false lovers that some of us have spent decades with will try to beckon us to come back. Some of us will return many times to these false lovers until we fully realize that what we are running to can never love us back. The true lover of our soul waits patiently for us to fully realize this.
So, let us remember, we were all made to be addicted. We were made to be habitually occupied, involved with and dependent upon the ONLY ONE who can give us true life, JESUS!! Once we have true life, the process begins of learning how to live in this new reality.