Are you sometimes hounded by recurring immoral practices that trip you up every time, plunging you into a spiritual downer?

Or worse, do you find yourself in the grip of a full-on addiction?

Perhaps you are ensnared by an invisible “sin-garrote” that tightens its grip when you try to escape.

You are not alone.

We’re not just talking about the so-called “gross sins” (murder, adultery, stealing), but also about those more “polite” sins like coveting, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, gossip, etc.

Addictions Don’t Give Up Easily

Do you believe that simply moving forward to “get past” these things is the answer? This is the textbook definition of a “fool’s mission.”

Your addictions/compulsions won’t let go that easily. You must go back to where things went wrong in the first place — which involves much more than just “moving on.”

It is not enough being a “good” boy or girl from now on.

Spoiling a Good Fishing Trip

To illustrate …

When I was a youngster, my dad and I frequently went on bass fishing trips on beautiful freshwater lakes around Ohio. Our day of fishing would proceed swimmingly until one or both of us fell victim to a dread “backlash,” which could catch us unawares in a flash.

A backlash occurred when, upon casting our lure toward the water, our fishing line would be thrown into a wild back and forth cycle, resulting in a hopeless tangle, preventing our reel from turning.

Meantime, your lure would halt midflight and fall helplessly right next to the boat. 

You knew right away when any fisherman on the lake got tripped up by a backlash because of the loud expletive-laden screams that followed.

A backlash put an abrupt end to the fun while the furious fisherman was forced to painstakingly untangle the countless knots that had instantaneously formed on his reel.

It All Starts With the First ‘Knot’

It’s important to note that all backlashes start with just one knot, and the rest of the knots follow in maddening lockstep.

This brings us back to our subject of chronic sins in your life. 

Sin, especially chronic sin in your life didn’t just arrive fully formed from outer space. It is a result of successive spiritual tangles that can be traced back to the first “knot” in your belief system.

While all the successive tangles must be addressed, it’s that first one that needs to be identified and unraveled. It is all about false beliefs.

For example, a child who initially undertakes to steal a cookie from a jar in a darkened pantry (his first knot) may falsely believe that no one is looking, or that no one cares.

Worse yet, since he may have gotten away with it (this time), the child may believe it must be all right — naturally the Devil is there with his “atta boys,” as he gleefully assists the child onto the slippery slope to chronic behavior patterns.

The list goes on: the child may believe that the only reason to behave is the fear of consequences. The child may not yet be aware of the higher motivations for good behavior like pleasing their parents, developing good character, acting because it is right, etc. — these deeper things come later — or not.

Changing Beliefs Is Hard (But Necessary) Work

C.S. Lewis wrote in his classic, The Great Divorce, “I do not think that all who chose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put right; but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound bit by bit ‘with backward mutters of dissevering power’ — or else not. It is still ‘either-or.’ If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven, we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.”

While volunteering to teach and mentor at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, I became acquainted with a tool used in its recovery program called The Genesis Program.

Via coaching and workbooks, addicts are taken back to their childhood to investigate the false beliefs and lies that are still driving harmful behavior in adulthood. The results can be amazing.

This isn’t done with one of those 30-day “wonder” recovery programs. The real thing requires a process of discovery that takes years.

Incidentally, this is why a parent’s primary responsibility is to form Godly beliefs in their otherwise-heathen children, it’s called discipline and without it, we perish.

How About You?

Do you still think you can just “move on” without first understanding what went wrong in the first place?

Next week we go to a specific example of how this approach can be applied to overcoming pornography addiction.

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