My Jerusalem

The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.

In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go “up to Jerusalem.” – Chambers

It is difficult to think of my Jerusalem as my addiction but that truly is the cross I bear. I did not choose addiction but I did make choices that contributed to the growth of the addict within me. I often wonder if I had been stronger to resist temptation, then I would have eluded the effects of addiction on my life and limited its effect on the lives of my family and friends. But this I fear is faulty thinking.

Doing God’s will is the key to going up to Jerusalem. Suffering through temptation is a diversion along the way to my Jerusalem. My bad choices were decisions contrary to God’s will for my life. My temptation was to follow my own desires. “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” James‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I traded real pleasure and joy for a counterfeit. When I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” Psalms‬ ‭16:2‬ ‭ESV‬‬, then I realize the path I was on was the path of death and not the path of life that the Lord makes known to those who say, “You are my Lord.” When I turn my life over to him he makes known to me the path of life and pleasures are available from his right hand. In His presence is fullness of joy.

So I see my addiction as my Jerusalem only as I see it as the path to complete surrender to God’s will and only when I see my addiction recovery as His purpose for my life.