Be careful about what you’re doing to cope with and escape from emotions, says Pastor Steven Furtick. What doesn’t start out as an addiction can easily become one when you have an unhealthy habit of escaping to the wrong things.
“Some of the addictions that people deal with in their life, they form them because they were trying to survive emotionally,” Furtick says. “They didn’t want to be hooked on pills; they just needed to take something to escape the way that they felt. … The devil will always be there to offer you a tunnel called temptation. The problem is that it works for a while; it’s good till it ain’t. Escape is enjoyable until you become enslaved by it.”
Furtick even says blaming and complaining are ways of escaping the pain of self-awareness. Taking responsibility is difficult.
“The problem is, I put my freedom on you when I put the blame on you,” Furtick says. ” … [God] wants to remind you that there’s nothing in front of you that God cannot bring you through.”
To watch the entire sermon clip about addiction, click here.
Charisma Media Staff 
