When we look back at our lives, we see that the road that took us down the path to addiction was strewn with flawed thinking and self-deception. We were not happy with our circumstances and wanted to be like the people around us who gave the appearance of being happy with life. At the beginning we used a little medication to enable us to feel happy and have a good time. This became a habit and eventually we were deceived into thinking that we needed our dependency to help us do life. It never occurred to us to look and see how God could actually bring about a positive and lasting change in our lives.
The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception. Fools mock at making amends for sin, but goodwill is found among the upright. (Proverbs 14:8-9 NIV)
We lived the pretense of “having it all together” through the haze of our medication of choice, but living this lie took its toll on us. In order to survive, we created an unreal identity for ourselves which demanded the ongoing use of our damaging substance. The greatest tragedy of self-deception is, we are not even aware that we are being deceived. We thought we knew better than God and everyone else what is good for us. We became arrogant and believed that we were right and everyone else was wrong. In fact, we were completely blind to our own errors.
When we make a choice to walk in God’s ways, we need to get rid of the false personality we have put on. We need to allow God to help us be the person He created us to be, and for whom He has a plan. As we identify with who God says we are, we will come to an awareness that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters and will thrive as we live in this truth that is so freeing and fulfilling.
Prayer: Gracious God, My desire is to take off the self-deceived person I have been and be renewed in my thinking to be the person You created me to be. Please help me! Amen
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