Freedom from addiction - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
1 Corinthians 6:12; Galatians 5:16.

Freedom from addiction
Addiction, or dependence, is behaviour based on a repeated and irrepressible desire to do or consume something despite the motivation and attempts to avoid it. Some addictions are serious: drugs, alcohol, pornography, video games, gambling. Sometimes we speak lightly of being "hooked" on certain transmissions or the website without realising that the source is the same for both believers and unbelievers.

When the apostle Paul wrote: "What I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practise; but what I hate, that I do" (Romans 7:15). He describes a believer who experiences the presence of sin within him through the desires that it suggests, and who tries to escape from the actual situation by his own means.

Where then is the power enabling me to realise what today's verse affirms: "I will not be brought under the power of any"? The power is that of the Spirit of God indwelling the believer (Galatians 4:6).

So how can I "walk in the Spirit", allowing it to direct my life? In me myself there is not the strength to do so. I must remember that "I am crucified with Christ" and that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). If I pray and read the Bible, whether alone or with other Christians, Christ will live in me and deliver me with the strength that God grants day after day.

Today's reading: Jeremiah 35:12-19 · Romans 7:14-25