Chapter 3

Addiction, like all types of life-controlling sin, is a spiritual problem. Anyone living in defiance of common sense Moral Laws expecting pardon from the very God who so placed the Laws is in denial of the innermost self-evident human dilemma. This is fundamental, for indeed the greatest accomplishment of wishful thinking is believing one can operate independently of God.

With relation to the Moral Law (selflessness, charity, good will, humility…), is should appear quite clear we do not often do as we ought. We all know what we ought to do, and in many cases do not do it. In a depraved spiritual condition with no hope of cure, apathetic and bewildered people wander endlessly and aimlessly through life in search of meaning, purpose, and escape. Quite true this search ends in utter fatality if help is not sought. Who then will help us? Who can deliver us from this death? The answer: only God Himself can -and will, if He is sought.

Admitting weakness and sometimes even powerlessness to drugs, alcohol, hurts, habits, or hang-ups is the first step toward dependence on God for recovery. The only true method of permanent deliverance from any sin is continual and absolute reliance upon the Power of God. Let me be perfectly clear, this Power to heal our human condition is not of ourselves, or of our own making.

We all tend to see the world and others only through our own needs, yet selfish compulsions that do not wreak havoc are mostly disregarded and thus remain unnoticed. The luxury of overlooking selfishness and other character defects (violations of Moral Law) is not something the addict can ever afford to do.

It starts with a problem of compulsion. The addict’s compulsory desires are grounded on genuine incapableness to employ self-restraint with regard to immediate gratification, pleasure seeking, and escapism. This governing faulty belief system converges around the following: denial, projection, rationalization, and minimization. In this very belief system the problem remains.