Overcoming Bad Habits and Addictions — Part 13
A wonderful exchange happened at the time of your baptism in water. Your old self that was addicted to bad habits and was a slave to obey the lusts and cravings of those habits was buried, never to be seen again. In exchange, you were raised up to new life in Christ Jesus. You left your old self behind in the waters of baptism, and you put on Jesus Christ.
”And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.”—Galatians 3:27 (NLT)
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.*** You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. ***All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,*** ****that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ****For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ***So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”—Ephesians 2:1-10 (NLT)
Now the challenge will be to re-train yourself to live in this new life having put on Christ. You must settle it in your mind that your old life is dead. You no longer live to satisfy the old habits and cravings.
“So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace?*** Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin? ****Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death. *So when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life.
“Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from death as he did. We know that our old life was put to death on the cross with Christ. This happened so that our sinful selves would have no power over us. Then we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control.
“If we died with Christ, we know that we will also live with him. Christ was raised from death. And we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now.*** Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God. In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive for God through Christ Jesus.”***—Romans 6:1-11 (ERV)
Now your life has a completely different focus. A retraining process is necessary. You must learn to walk in the truth of your new life of freedom in Christ.
You might think of it this way. If you been born without legs, you would have developed other ways of getting around in life to compensate for not having legs. But now that you are born again and baptized, it is like you underwent miraculous surgery that gave you the legs you never had before! But after you rise up from the surgery, there is a recovery and rehabilitation process to unlearn previous ways of doing things and to learn new ways of getting around in life now that you have nothing holding you back! And what you actually experienced was not just addition of new legs, but you are a completely new person!
You must retrain yourself (with God’s help) in two ways: (1) You have to unlearn former ways of living and (2) learn new ways of living.
Doctors and physical therapists will tell you that the rehabilitation period after major surgery is a crucial time. To gain full use of your body after surgery, you must give some focused time and effort to rehabilitation exercises. If you neglect this, there is a danger that your body may never fully recover from surgery, and you may never gain full use of your body after that major surgery.
The Apostle Paul wrote extensively about this “rehabilitation period” in some of his letters. Basically, you must be alert to catch your thoughts and your actions if they try to drift back into old ways of doing things. You must not allow old thoughts or old actions that could, in a worst case scenario, lead you back into your old lifestyle of addiction. What a tragedy that would be, especially now that you have been freed from bad habits, addictions, and their cravings, if old thoughts and actions that you were used to in your old life were allowed to get a foothold in your new life of freedom and pull you back into slavery to those old habits!
The key to conquering those old thoughts and actions is to replace them with new thoughts and actions. It is not enough just to stop thinking old thoughts. You must replace those old thoughts with new thoughts of freedom, and you must replace old actions that would have led your old self into those bad habits with new actions that will lead you to accomplishments that you will be proud of, with no shame attached to them.
“Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.*** ***Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
“Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!*** Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. ***Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
“Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.”—Romans 6:12-22 (ICB)
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.*** And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, ***having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”—Colossians 2:6-14 (NKJV)
Now that your old self is dead and buried in baptism and you are raised up out of the waters of baptism to a completely new life, it may take some “getting used to” to retrain yourself to live this new life, which is completely different from your old life when you were bound by addictions.
Set a New Focus!
If you do not take time to retrain yourself, you may wander back into your old ways because that is all you’ve known. You may have no history of living any other way except a lifestyle of being bound by those old addictions, so you must create new memories and a new history of a lifestyle of freedom.
Start by setting a new focus for yourself. Now that you are able to live for a higher purpose, do that! Set higher goals for yourself. Seek a higher purpose!
“If then you were raised with Christ, **seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. **For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”—Colossians 3:1-4 (NKJV)
Now that you are free from the old addictions, what goals do you have for your life? What are the big life goals that you feel like you must accomplish for your life to be complete and successful? And what are the smaller goals that you want to accomplish for yourself, your family, your health, your career, your purpose in life?
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Begin by writing down those goals. Think big! Envision a great future for yourself now that you are free to pursue it!
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What steps are needed to make your goals happen? Write those down. Your plan doesn’t have to be neatly organized as long as it makes sense to you. And you can always rewrite it later if you see a need to do that.
*“Then the Lord answered me and said: *
‘Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.’”—Habakkuk 2:2 (NKJV)
You may want to get a daily planner to help you stay focused on your goals, but the main thing at this point is to clearly define your goals and the main steps you need to take to reach your goals.
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Take action! Begin moving your life in a positive direction. Begin taking steps of action to pursue and achieve the positive goals that you have for your life! If you discover that you need to make adjustments to your plan later, that’s fine. Just keep your life moving in a positive direction!
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Partner with others who have similar goals to yours. As the Bible says, “Don’t be fooled: ‘Bad friends will ruin good habits’” (1 Corinthians 15:33 ERV). In order to be successful in your new life, you may have to change your companions. You may have to say goodbye to old friends who would drag you down and spend more time with new friends who will encourage and support you on your journey.
In order to ensure that your life does not slip back into old habits that you knew and followed before, you need to establish a new lifestyle with new goals and a new purpose in life. God has a wonderful plan for your life that will bring you ultimate fulfillment. Seek Him. Ask Him. Knock at His door and pursue Him and His plan for your life.
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”—Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT)
