When Struggling With Addiction

Can we find shalom when struggling with addictions? Below Karol shares her story: how she found freedom and something even greater.

Karol:

”How can we find shalom, real peace in the midst of struggling with addictions? I honestly think that today, most people struggle with addictions to some degree or other. People deal with pornography, or addictions to television, or work, or shopping, gambling, drugs, alcohol, everything. For some of us, however, those addictions become crippling, and that was true for me.

I have been personally addicted to over-exercising, to work, to food, and it was really the food that brought me to my knees. I didn’t believe that I would ever find any freedom from the addictions that I struggled with. I was truly powerless, and in a sense, that’s real slavery. When we want to control things and are completely unable to do that.

I never thought that there was hope for me, until at one point I finally gave up the struggle, and made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. God came into my life in such an amazing way, and I believe that He wants to do the same for you. I know that there is hope and there is life after addiction and you are not alone, and I hope that you explore that, and find the same freedom that I found. 

If you’ve ever experience what is’s like to not be able to do what it is that you’ve wanted to do, or the inability to stop doing what you don’t want to do, then you know the struggle that addicts deal with all the time. For me living with addiction was like a living death, and truly slavery; I was powerless over it.

But now the Torah tells us that God came to give us life, and that each of us has the choice to choose death or to choose life. Today, I’m grateful that many years ago, back in 1988, I chose life; and made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God.

Now looking back on al those years of addiction, I can easily identify with the words of King David who wrote in Psalm 119, “It was good that I was afflicted, because, so that I might learn your decrees (Psalm 119:71). And he said, “before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I follow your word.” (Psalm 119:76). So David knew that by struggling with addictions or being afflicted in some way, it was a good thing when it brought us to God.

The key to any kind of freedom in my opinion and the bible’s teaching, is in obeying God’s will instead of obeying our own. And the first thing that I had to do in that regard was to recognize that I am powerless, that I’m not God, that I couldn’t heal myself, but that there was a God who is all-powerful and He truly was able to restore me to sanity.

Then I made that decision to say, “Okay God, your will, not mine.” And every day I pray, “God show me your will for my life, give me the power to do it, and I promise I’ll do it, no matter what.” Through this process, I really did learn what it was to have freedom from addiction and to experience life.

But I do understand that God wants more for me, and for all of us, that we would have more than just freedom from addiction, and even a good life in this world, but God want to give us eternal life. And that’s only available through His Son, Jesus, who I also came to know through asking god to show me His will, and show me the truth about who He is. I hope that you’ll want to explore that for yourself, because, I know that God would love to show you the truth.”