DT 4:23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden.

Most of us are familiar with the story of The Lord of the Rings, with the ring of power, and how Gollum was obsessed with getting it back after losing it. Gollum both loved and hated this ring, and it controlled every facet of his life until it ultimately led to his demise in the end when he fell into a lake of lava while still trying to hold onto it. Addiction is the same thing for us, and although we hate what it does to our life, we still love the temporary joy, pleasure, and peace that it gives us. Addiction never fully satisfies, and it always keeps us needing it.

1PE 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

Idolatry is when we look to something other than God to give us what should actually only come from God alone. We look to addiction to relieve unhealed emotional pain, and to give us a certain sense of peace, joy, and happiness, that we think can be only be found through it alone. The problem with addiction is though, it always takes much more than it gives, and it usually just gives us the opposite of what we think we are getting from it. Later on, it too leads us to a fiery end where we have nothing left but a trail of destruction, and a ruined life.

2CO 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

I just want to encourage you today to start getting what you need from the right place, and no longer in the wrong places. Addiction offers you temporary and limited peace and joy, but God offers you lasting peace and joy. Why let the lies of addiction cheat you out of what is genuine and lasting? You alone must choose what you allow into your life and you alone will give an account for your choices in the end for what they produced. So my friend, make the right choice today and ask God to help you to find what is truly precious in life through Him.

2CO 6:17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."