If seduction is the deliberate act of enticing someone into a behaviour and addiction is the compulsion to repeat the behaviour, regardless of its consequences, then we are left to conclude that there is a precursor to both. We are left to presume that the addiction is the result of having been seduced repeatedly to the point where we serve the addiction as the tolerance increases.
Years and years ago, having been labelled an addict was somewhat of a relief. As far back as I can remember I had searched for an explanation for my irrational and unhealthy behaviours. I needed to blame something or someone for my dis-ease which resulted in one compulsion after another being played out in my life. So, when someone gave me the old, “You can’t help yourself you’re an addict,” it laid the foundation for future behaviour. They were right about something – I couldn’t help myself.
Having successfully completed my third rehab program, (the first two didn’t take), I then had to deal with my anger. I was angry at God. I blamed Him for the way I was and how my life had turned out. At the end of my anger came the revelation that all my behaviours were geared at seeking that which could fill the growing emptiness inside me. Contrary to popular belief, time doesn’t heal all wounds, but God does. By His grace, I was able to let go of my anger, (I had no energy left to sustain it). By letting go and letting God, He was able to show me the deepest longing that the enemy used to seduce me. That unmet need was a need for a perfect and unconditional love. Every addiction has been a new wine in an old wine skin - a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. The condition of my heart was critical and needed restoration – not patchwork. I couldn’t help myself. I had a God-shaped hole in my heart and without Him, the prognosis was surely death.
As God would have it, Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost. One day, the cliché “it’s not about you,” actually meant something. After years of having heard the first tenet of every good recovery program, “Admit we were powerless and that our lives had become unmanageable,” it finally germinated – into the second step: “came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
In the book of James, Chapter 1:14, it is written “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” The key here is the order. Temptation comes only when our desire first separates us, (from God and/or others), and then entices or seduces us. Matthew writes, in Chapter 4, that the temptation of Christ occurred after having been led into the desert. Satan enticed Jesus with food, (lust of the flesh). Isn’t it wonderful how at the very moment of desperation, (our “bottom”), we cling to the only one we have complete trust in? Jesus trusted in the Word of God and fed on that.
The crucial thing to recognize is what entices us. We have spiritual, emotional and physical needs that must be met. In the first temptation Satan attacked Jesus’ physical needs. Jesus had been fasting. Identifying the enticement however is only half the battle, the other half we are powerless over. Only our Creator can identify the root of an addiction and it is only through intimacy with God that He will reveal the source of the root and restore our sanity.
We can try making deals with God. Satan tempted Jesus to do just that. The deals I tried making with God were countless ... and fruitless. The bottom line, with an addict, is this: we’ll always be brought to our knees; the choice is ours for the making. We will either serve our addiction, serve a false god or religion, or we can serve the Living Son of God who waits for us to ask, to seek, and to knock. We are free to choose death or life. Death is eternal separation from the One who completes us. Choosing Life offers mercy, grace, transformation, abundance, and the eternal peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding.
