By Rikki and Bear Perrin
Hi Parkway Family, we are Bear and Rikki Perrin, and we are day nine of our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. And day nine is about addiction. So we’re praying over addiction in our valley. And there’s a couple important things that we wanted to talk about regarding addiction before we prayed to kind of put some context around it.
Addiction is not just drugs, alcohol, pornography. We tend to focus on them because they have the most far reaching impact in people’s lives and they can be quite devastating. But there are so many things that we are addicted to, that are really just idols. And God’s first commandment is that we not have any other God before him.
Yet we have all sorts of things that we turn to, to be our comforter, other than the Holy Spirit, who was given for that purpose.
So, in fact, addiction is not even in the Bible. You won’t hear Jesus talking about it. He warns about idolatry. And it may seem like semantics, but I think we need to put it where it actually belongs.
If we put it where it belongs, then we can deal with it correctly. We can own it. So if we’re talking about idolatry, we can identify all sorts of things. So outside of the big ones that everybody thinks of we can consider: exercise, that’s an idol as well as food. Anything that you turn to like supplements.
If I take all my supplements, that’s where my health comes from. And that’s why I’m healthy. I take care of myself and I drink all my water and that kind of thing. We make these idols that we think keep us safe and they become our guide. And if we don’t have them, we’re not okay. If I don’t get my exercise in, I don’t feel okay for the day.
Or it can be something that’s maybe a little bit more obvious, like shopping. I only feel really happy when I’m shopping or when I’m eating. I know that people are sad or struggling with things and then go have a little treat because you feel better for the moment, but really it’s bondage and you can’t get away from it and you can’t stop it.
So it’s super important for us to come to this conclusion that that’s not God’s best for us. But also to be open and humble enough to say, all right, Holy Spirit. And this is where we’ve been for the last few months, really just show us anything that’s keeping us from you. And not that he’s away from us, because he will truly never leave us for her sake.
That’s where we’ve been, asking God to show us anything that’s holding us back. And we were super surprised to see a few things.
Time. What we do with our time, right, is a big deal. It’s such a slippery little slope, you know, just entertainment. Entertainment is such a big thing in our society, and it just is a time waster itself. That’s some of the stuff that we got for this 21 days of prayer and fasting.
So it can be really subtle and it can not feel like an idol because it doesn’t feel so damaging as some of the bigger things. But really take some time and ask yourself when a problem arises in your life, or you’re feeling a little stressed out, or you’re just a little irritated about something, maybe you’re tired.
What is the thing that you turn to that’s an idol? If it’s not God, it’s something you’re putting before God as your comforter and it’s an idol. And the only way for us to deal with that is to recognize it for what it is. Which is why we ask that you remove the label of addict, and you put on your identity as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
You have a new identity, and it isn’t an addict to whatever it is, but you have to first recognize that that’s there, repent of that, change how you’re viewing it and recognize it.
Say Father, I’ve erected this idol before you that I didn’t even realize I had and I don’t want it anymore. You created me to know you and to have intimacy with you.
And as long as I entertain that thing, I can’t have that. I can’t serve two masters. I can’t have two gods. I have to lay one down and honor the other. And so this day and this, week, as we finish this 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting and then beyond as He leads, recognize what that thing is and just continue to thank him for the freedom that he’s given you until you experience that freedom on a daily basis.
Father, thank you that I’m not bound by anything, that I am bound to you, and I am bound to your word because you died and you sacrificed yourself, that you could live in me and through me. And I laid my life down, and I gave myself to you. And while I have these little desires in my life, I don’t have a desire that’s greater than knowing you to become one with you, to honor you with my whole life, I don’t want there to be anything left unopened that you’ve given me.
I don’t want to. I don’t want to have a life that is split down the middle, that partially honors you and partially doesn’t. That’s idolatry. And I just want to recognize what those things are. Thank you for fathering us. Thank you for teaching us. Thank you for leading us into all truth. And thank you that we have everything that pertains to life and godliness, and nothing shall by any means harm us.
God, I just thank you for this time that we get to give you and thank you so much that you’re the fulfillment of all of our desires. We just bless you.
And I want to add to that, Father, I just ask that you would, send forth workers. You say that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. I pray that you would stir up the hearts of your people, and that you would mobilize your army, and that we would go out into our community and we would really, truly love people and we would bring freedom to them.
We would bring the freedom that Jesus died to give us freedom from everything that binds us, that we just wouldn’t have to walk under the weight of bondage, that we can be completely free and have an entirely new life in you, and have an entirely new identity in you. So we thank you for that. I thank you for just, really impressing on the hearts of your people to just be praying to cover their neighborhoods, to cover their families, to cover their workplaces.
And really just to go out and be a light in the world that people would see their good works and glorify you, Father. In Jesus name. Amen.
