Overcoming Temptations/Addictions: Part 1

The Problem

Recently, a friend asked me to meet him for Bible Studies.
Two months earlier, I met him on the street while giving out free bible studies at the Utica Avenue Train Station. We were to meet at some point for Bible Studies. He had 3 jobs and his schedule was completely filled. But this time when I called, he wanted to meet. He said, he was not feeling well. So, I went to his job at his lunch break. He's a construction worker. We met in the basement of an unfinished building under construction. Amids the bare concrete, dust, exposed pipes and wires, I knew this was as good a place as any to share the goodness of God.



We prayed together. He said, 'okay I'll just sit and listen'. I planned on studying the prophecies of Daniel & Revelation but before we began I asked him his concern. He said, 'I want to be a Christian, but I have a problem, I'm struggling with sex addiction'. He wanted to know how to overcome temptation.

I prayed and commenced and impromptu bible study on the topic.

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I visited the home of a family in crisis a few months ago. The mother & boyfriend lived in the apartment building. There were 6 children in the home. But this family had one catch, the mother and boyfriend smoked crack. The mother forced two of her children to go out on the street and beg for money to finance her crack habit. The mother it very clear to her children that if they did not go on the street - and bring home money, they could find some place else to lieve. This mother did not care weather her children lived or died. She knew the law very well. It turns out that ACS will not pull out children out of the home just because the parent is smoking crack - that's what I was told by the person who took reports. Here's the challenge with the ACS policy. According to an Associated Content News Report

"Since many female crack addicts have children, this means children are neglected and in some cases abused or exposed to the world of crack. Children are used as sources for obtaining crack and many have turned their own children on to crack or have their daughters engage in sex with male customers or associates to obtain crack. "

ACS prefers to respond to disasters rather than nipping problems in the bud.



I sat in that bare apartment filled with 4 daughters wondering how much longer it would take this mother to start thinking of selling her daughters to find crack. The children begging on the street were age 17 (girl), 21(boy). They were just at the age where ACS will not intervene. She knew the law. When I spoke to the mother, she seemed like she wanted to get her life together. She said it seems like her and her family was cursed. (it was cursed because of her addictions) As I considered the need of that home, it became clear that she needs to learn how to overcome temptation.


Crack and Cocaine like many other drugs are water soluble. They wash out of the body quickly. There is no special medication to detoxify crack addicts. To detoxify, all that's needed is to drink water, take showers, hot steam baths, and following a healthy diet/lifestyle. Once the drug has exited the system in a day or two, the one remaining issue is how to overcoming temptation.


Whether it's Crack Addiction, Sex Addiction, Food Addiction, Gambling Addiction, Alcohol Addiction, Porn Addiction, Rage, Selfishness, Laziness, Evil Thought Patterns and all other vices, they are all the same - Sin Addictions. They destroy.

The Bible describes the Sin Addiction by saying in Jeremiah 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil".


Sin Addiction is the problem & God offers us the Solution. It's Simple and it's found in the Bible. To be continued in Part 2