New Year: Time to Overcome Addictions

This is the time of the year where people love to make resolutions. Today is the 6th of January, and by now many people already feel like a failure over their failed resolutions. When it comes to overcoming any bad habit, what people need to understand is that our actions stem from our beliefs. These beliefs shape our thoughts and conscience, and these in turn, control our actions. It all starts with our beliefs.

There was a time when psychologists did not pay attention to people's beliefs. The Freudian school taught psychologists to look at the human mind sort of like a machine. If we simply fixed hidden issues and helped resolve bad memories, right thinking and actions would result. The focus of psychology was in the subconscious. It was believed that the subconscious was really the place in the mind where everything happened. Personal beliefs, thoughts, and the will were basically ignored in trying to heal the mind. Evolutionary thinking denies the existence of free will in human beings, and treats us like other animals. It is concerned with instincts, unconscious conditioned reactions to stimulus, and heredity. Sigmund Freud based his entire psychological theory on the assumption of evolution.

Today, we know that Freudian psychotherapy has never been proven to be more effective than taking a placebo for depression. Psychology today is all about dealing with the conscious processes of the mind. Thoughts, beliefs, and the will, are the target of modern counseling. We've found that people are not victims of their past and heredity. We have free will and personal responsibility. We can take control of our lives and destiny, given the right beliefs, thoughts, and action of the will.

Let's apply this to keeping resolutions and overcoming bad habits.

Modern psychology may operate under an explicitly theistic framework. Yet it is far from acknowledging the existence of a personal God. What they seek to do is teach people to think about the future positively. They teach people to believe that the future is basically good, and that things will work out in the end. By telling yourself these things over and over again, you will gain confidence and strength to fight the battles of life.

And it Works. Somewhat.

The problem is that unless a person has real reason to believe that life will basically turn out well, they can't just tell themselves these things forever.

Let's look at the world through the lens of complete atheism. What does the future look like? Well, one day we will all die, so will everyone we know and love. We will become dirt. One day that dirt will be consumed by the sun when it explodes. In the meantime everything we are and accomplish on this planet is utterly meaningless.

Now I know some happy atheists, kind of. But as a rule, their happiness is circumstantial. It's based on their current life being good. And deep down, there is a constant despair. An atheist's happiness can't possibly be based on hope, because there is none.

(please don't be offended. First of all, there are few true atheists out there. Most people use the term atheist, when in fact they are agnostic, meaning that they just don't know. They still hold on to a ray of hope. I meet many people like this every day. Atheists can be very kind people and I am not trying to diminish them in any way. I'm just calling it the way I see it based on 2 years of Bible work where I spent my time talking to strangers about God.)

It's interesting how scientists who don't even believe in God are demonstrating His existence in the fact that human beings are incapable of having genuine happiness without Him. By demonstrating the need for hope in human beings to be truly happy and strong people, they have demonstrated our need for God.

An old hymn that is sung in many churches has the chorus 'faith is the victory, faith is the victory, O glorious victory, that overcomes the world'

It's based on 1 John 5:4, which says

This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

Very often in life, it isn't actual suffering that gets us, but the anticipation of suffering. There is no one who is physically unable to quit smoking, quit over-eating, quit pornography, etc, it's that they can't fathom how life will be bearable without it. They anticipate a miserable life ahead for themselves if they quit these addictions, and so they get discouraged and go back to them again and again. Addictions feed on fear of the future.

Fear of the future is a belief. You don't know the future, you can only have beliefs about it. That belief that the future will be grim without this bad habit is based on a worldview where we are basically on our own in this lonely universe, left to fight the battles of life on our own. How will we make it without our crutch?

I've got news for you. We are not alone. If you incorporate this new belief into your life, and make it a habitual part of your thinking, you will find that no addiction can control you.

Here's how it works. Basically, the Bible tells us that there is a God, who is not only very powerful and the Creator of everything. But He also knows your name and the number of all the hairs on your head. He has good things in store for you.

"delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

"I know the thoughts I think towards you...thoughts of peace and not of evil." Jeremiah 29:13

Because He has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him...I will deliver him/her and honor him/her. With long life I will satisfy her and show her my salvation. Psalm 91:14-16

This is the one belief that will make life a success for you: God is on your side. He's intensely interested in you and wants to show you true happiness that you cannot fathom.

As long as you believe this, nothing can ever defeat you.

Now, am I talking about some positive thinking therapy based on no real evidence? Absolutely not. Those things work for a while, but eventually they backfire because we can only believe a lie for so long. But this is different. The more you make it a point to seek God, learn about Him, and follow His will, the more He will actually reveal Himself to you in tangible ways.

"the angel of the Lord encamps all around them that fear Him, and He delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8

God invites you to taste and see for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

Reader: Are you tired of living life wondering why? Are you tired of being afraid of what lies around the corner? Are you tired of cheep mind-numbing thrills and thirst for something more meaningful in life? Faith is the victory. Place your faith in the One who is worthy of it. Every other "god" out there will let you down. But the one who formed you, who holds your life in your hands, who promised: "I will never leave you nor forsake you," He will never let you down.

There's one condition though. You have to seek Him with all your heart. This isn't because He's trying to test you or make you jump through hoops. It's just that our mind takes the mold of whatever we dwell the most on. If we spend most of our time focusing on the worries and pleasures of this world, our faith will never be much good to us. It won't be strong enough to ever support us.

But if we make the willful decision to develop a mind of faith through constantly focusing on God's goodness, studying His word, and talking to Him throughout the day, we will find that He will more than meet us halfway in giving us new minds of faith, hope, and joy.

Without God, we are frail and weak. But with God, we are invincible. That's why God says to us:

Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27:5