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Edgar Cazares Diaz
in
South Coast Church
6 years ago

“Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.”

I once heard the following quote: “Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.” I was reminded of these words when I heard the testimonies on Sunday about the different journeys toward recovery. I listened in amazement to the individual stories of transformation. I listened in admiration to the stories of a new birth made possible through the renewal of the Spirit.  


I believe that the idea of addiction is found in the Bible. I would even go as far as to say that the biblical word or equivalent for addiction is sin. If this has any truth to it then we are all addicts. Addiction to a substance, like in the stories that we heard on Sunday, is only one visible example of addiction. We should not lose sight of the fact that many of us are addicted to our way of thinking. As a society, we are addicted to our culture and our way of living.


The reality is that we are not always aware of what we are addicted to because addiction is not always easy to pin down or get a grip on. It requires an alternate or different way of thinking. This different way of thinking is what makes possible freedom from our own thinking and, from what the Bible calls, the world and its way of thinking.


Step 11 of the 12 Steps says this: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” I think this step recognized the importance of prayer. Prayer as a spiritual practice is transformative. It changes you. Prayer, I believe, changes the way we think and helps us uncover the false-self (that superficial identity or fake appearance we create and use to relate to others) so that we can take on the mind of Jesus (Philippians 2:5-8) and Jesus’ way of thinking.


Pastor Craig asked everyone this Sunday if we can break the bonds of addiction. I’ll finish this post by repeating what Romans says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2, CSB).

  1. Faithlife User
    2 months ago

    Cool!