My Master

“It’s borderline malnutrition,” the doctor whispered to my husband. “It’s an addiction. Addictive behaviors to sugar and brain-damaging excitotoxins—like binging, withdrawal, and craving—are all related to the same neurochemicals involved in heroin addiction.”

My subsequent confession of subterfuge, acting busy during meals so I didn’t have to eat anything else, ordering only whipped cream and hot fudge when out to eat with friends, and midnight sugar gluttony, was no laughing matter. My body was under the craving and control of chemicals. Fully and finally we understood that a god or false master (Baal) can have many forms.

Saint Augustine and the philosopher Pascal famously described mankind’s drive for satisfaction as a spiritual quest to fill a vacuum in our souls. The vacuum, they explained, was created by and for God and could only be filled with God. Unfortunately man has for centuries kept choosing to fill that void with anything and everything except God and His Word. Millions continue believing they control their craving, be it food, drink, physical experience, drug or anything else we come to believe we “must” have.

The Bible likens such behavior to enslavement. To become enslaved to anything we must first submit to it. To be released of any ungodly control (anything that takes first place in our body, soul or spirit) we must also submit – to God.

God never leaves us to fight these battles on our own. He promises that when we submit to Him, He will give us the power and strength to resist the Devil (James 4:7), and only with that power, will the enemy finally give up control of our body and soul, and flee. That is the power that led me to sing, I don’t want to be bound to anything but you Jesus, I don’t want any chains on me, but the bonds of Your love.*

Each day I continue to submit any chains (habits, hurts, emotions, weaknesses, thoughts, desires) that bind me and keep me from fully experiencing the bonds of freedom in the love of Jesus Christ.

Let God give you that same freedom; bind your heart’s desires and longings to Him alone. He alone can satisfy.

1Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

* From Joel Welkin’s song I Don’t Want To Be Bound – used by permission