So, you want to be delivered?

Scenario:  A man walks into a bar, sits in a booth, and relaxes himself.  A guy at the table next to him hands him a lit cigarette and a waitress brings him a glass of his favorite beer.  He doesn't even have to ask...everyone knows him and knows what he likes.  You see, this guy is a regular at this bar...well, he used to be.  Up until about 3 months ago he was a regular at this bar.  But his constant smoking and drinking was causing trouble in his family.  So rather than lose his family, he promised his wife and children that he wouldn't smoke or drink again.  He prayed for deliverance, believed he received it and was walking in his new found freedom.  But then he had a rough day at work.  So he decided to swing past the old hangout, just to say hello and decompress a bit.  Not to drink or smoke anything...just to say hello.  But he hadn't even been there an hour before those old cravings started gnawing at him again.  He took a sip, he took a drag...and before he knew it he had downed four beers, smoked 3 cigarettes and was wondering how he was going to explain this all to his wife.  He was angry and disappointed in himself.  How could this have happened?  He had, after all, prayed for deliverance.  God had failed him.  God had failed to deliver him!

This is an all too common chain of events.  I bet many of us have experienced this same scenario in our own lives.  Maybe not with alcohol or cigarettes.  Maybe your struggle is with drugs, partying, sex, or lust.  Maybe with poor money choices, negative relationships, even gossiping.
So what's the problem?  Why is it that many of us pray for deliverance and yet fall back into the same situations we have prayed to be delivered from?  Why is it that we can go 3 months, 1 year, 2 years without giving in to temptation, and then one day we fall back and we're suddenly deeper than we were before the deliverance?  Well, there are many factors to consider.  I believe one of the biggest culprits  is our own lack of participation.

Psalm 71: 1-3 (The Message)
I run for dear life to God, I'll never live to regret it.  Do what you do so well:  get me out of this mess and up on my feet.  Put your ear to the ground and listen, give me space for salvation.  Be a guest room where I can retreat; you said your door was always open!  You're my salvation--my vast, granite fortress.

This sounds to me like the cry of a person who is in serious trouble.  So much trouble that he has to "RUN (not walk) for dear life to God".  He's praying for God to get him out of the trouble that he's obviously gotten himself in to.  Then he asks God to be, not only a place of retreat for him, but a "vast, granite fortress".  This is a person who is participating in the deliverance that he desperately wants and needs.  And this is where many of us go wrong.  We pray for freedom from alcohol; then we hang out at a bar.  We pray for freedom from getting high; then we go hang out with the friend or family member who smokes weed on the regular.  We pray for deliverance from lust, then we watch movies and listen to music that glorifies and displays sexual promiscuity.  And then we wonder why our brains are all messed up; why we can't stay free from the issues that we wrestle with!!
Friends, it's not easy.  Anyone who has ever wrestled with any addiction, behavior, or tendency that they  desperately wanted to be free from (and that's pretty much all of us) will tell you that it's not easy to turn your back on something that is constantly tugging at you.  It's not easy to turn your back and it's not easy to keep it turned.  So, when you do decide to turn your back and RUN toward your own freedom, even a tiny taste or over-the-shoulder glance at what you're forsaking isn't the best idea.  And once you've experienced the freedom you've prayed for, ignoring the iniquity as if it never existed is also dangerous.  As a matter of fact, it can be more detrimental to you.


Luke 11:24-26 (The Message)
"When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil.  When it doesn't find anyone, it says 'I'll go back to my old haunt.'  On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant.  It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up.  That person end up far worse than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place."

So, you see?  Even the guy who cleaned himself up was subject to falling back into the old behavior, even deeper than before, because he was not vigilant; he was not actively participating in his own deliverance.
I said it before and i'll say it again.  IT'S NOT EASY!!  Freedom is not easy.  It requires changing your mind about your behavior, changing your behavior, taking on a new way of thinking, making different choices, acquiring new habits.  In every case it will also require changing your surroundings and your circle of friends.  If you've decided that you no longer want to participate in a certain behavior, continuing to hang with people who are going to encourage that behavior is only going to work against the freedom that you so desperately seek.  And of course there will be the naysayers.  Those who criticize you for thinking you're "better than them", for "turning your back on who you are", for "trying to be something that you're not".  But if your heart is heavy with a desire for something new and you've decided for yourself that your life must change, you must be vigilant about walking a new path in a new direction.  And you must accept that it may be a lonely path for a while.  Quite often, you will be reminded of how "easy" life was before you decided to go another way.  But you have to keep striving, pressing, pushing toward your goal.

I'm reminded of two verses of scripture:
Philippians 1:6 (The Message)
There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.  
**Whatever the struggle, whatever the path God is leading you on, He's not going to abandon you.  As a matter of fact, He will continue to work with you to bring you to your freedom up until the very moment that Jesus returns.
Jeremiah 29:11 (The Message)
I know what i'm doing.  I have it all planned out--plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
You see?  When He starts tugging on your heart, pulling you toward change, hinting that deliverance is available, He already knows what it's going to take.  He already knows how long it will take, the confusion you will feel, the roadblocks that you may experience along the way.  But he's not going to give up.  And all you've got to do is be a willing and active participant.

Keep pressing toward the light.