overcoming addiction

What enables us to successfully break away from an addiction?

Is it guilt and shame? 

That may play a temporary roll short term. But if the change is to last it must go beyond guilt and shame.

Long term change occurs only if ¹three things happen:

1. ²We realize the consequences of an addiction outweighs the benefits; that the ultimate rewards for discontinuing the addiction are greater then the ones gained by it.

This often takes time i.e. the pleasure of an addiction is usually immediate, whereas the benefits of turning away from it often don't appear right away but ³over time. 

This usually starts with a desire to get away from the harm the addiction is causing. The longer one continues life addiction free, the greater the benefits become. The short term benefits of the addiction are no longer as great as the long term benefits. 

2. We come to see/experience something more satisfying that overpowers our addictive desires (or severs it's pull) i.e. when we find something more desirable than what we are presently addicted to, it draws us to it instead of our being drawn to the former addiction. 

3. A desire to honor God because we understand how he has honored us. And how has he? By giving something of great value to us so he might have a relationship with us. This says something very significant about our value to God, does it not? 

For more on what motivates us to obedience click here. 

For more on our worth to God, click here. 

For a discussion on what is our greatest reward click here.

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¹We may experience short term change if the first or second reason occur. But the greatest chance for permanent change involves all three. 

Plus the 3rd reason never stops expanding. The more we understand what God has done for us, the greater our desire to honor him and the less likely we are to fall into former or new addictive behavior. 

²The significance of these three reasons is the reverse order, 3 being the most significant. I only list them this way because this is usually the order in which we discover and experience them organically.

³Or maybe not appear at all. Maybe only through confidence/trust that the eternal benefits far outweigh the temporary loses are what we must depend on to break away from addiction i.e. only the hope of (and belief in) a future reward for faithfully pursuing God - vs partaking in an addiction - is what enables us to avoid destructive/addictive behavior.