Part 2 of Spiritual Addictions: What is Halt?

Can this be a slightly double post?
My brother is graduating today with a Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry. He'll continue his studies in Tennessee until he receives his masters.
I'm so proud of you, N!

It's going to be so hard without any brothers in the house! My other brother, Joshua, left a few weeks ago and is living in New Mexico.

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So here's my 'second' post for today.

Review and a bit of clarification

Okay, the long-awaited moment has finally come. Or at least I like to think it was long-awaited...

H – Hungry

A – Angry

L – Lonely

T – Tired

As you read in my previous post on Spiritual Addictions, H.A.L.T. is used in most rehabilitation programs. Now that you know what it means, let me clarify something for you. It’s not a Christian based idea, but I’m looking at it from my own, Biblical point of view.

I think we can consider H.A.L.T. as a safeguard for sin.

A short allegory to illustrate my point

There once was a rich Landowner who bought slaves from a cruel slave driver and set them free. They were ignorant and poor, but he gave them guidance. He read to them from a book which refreshed them and renewed their spirits. He gave them each a piece of land and taught them how to grow plants and tend to animals. They loved the landowner because he had set them free from their pain and poverty and they lived near him, under his kind protection.

But there were those who would try to deceive the people. In a neighbouring village, there lived people enslaved under cruel and hate-filled leaders. These people lived in total darkness and were blind to all sin. These deceived people attempted to lead the now free people astray by telling them that they were still slaves of the Landowner; that he did not love them and only used them for their labor. The newly freed people were weak and listened to these lies occasionally and sometimes they would get a bit homesick. They would long for their former life of slavery because it was comfortable and all they had ever known.

So the Landowner protected his people by laying down boundaries and setting up a strong metal fence enclosing his sweet, green pasture from the other village. The people were prone to folly and often ventured toward the edge of the fence where the grass didn’t grow and the ground was rocky. The Landowner was patient and kind and always forgave his people for their foolishness.

But one day he told the people that he was making a trip to his father’s home and, though he would be gone for a while, they were to wait for his return. He left his book with them and showed them how to read from it. He also wrote them many letters to remind them that he was coming back and to give them hope. The letters also told them what he expected of them and were meant to help them when they were tempted to go into the other land of slavery.

And thus the people waited.

Waiting in sin, yet striving for perfection

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, we are those people.

And we often return to the shameful way of slavery.

I admit that it is so hard to be free from sin. In fact, it is impossible, isn’t it?

Only He can be free from sin.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8

A ‘safeguard’ for sin

H.A.L.T. is a safeguard for us.

A safeguard from sins.

Just bear with me.

Suppose that the Landowner in the story put up a guideline for his people.

On a small wooden sign, weak and battered, he wrote this:

DANGER!

My children do not return to your evil ways. You are prone to sin and can hurt each other. Remember this in every action, thought, and deed:

Do not proceed if you are any of the following:

Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired

Closing thoughts

Okay, so maybe that’s taking it a little too far. After all, God did not give us H.A.L.T.

But I do believe that it’s a pretty useful tool.

It often stops me in my path and helps me to remember that God does not want me to do any evil.

I also like to think that H.A.L.T. can be speaking spiritually. If you are Spiritually Hungry, Angry...you get the point.

Don’t worry if you’re just a bit confused.

I’m going to keep posting on this—at least that’s my plan for the time being.

The next post will hopefully be on Satisfying Spiritual Hunger, but you never know what I might dish out. Ahem....well.

So, what do you think of H.A.L.T.?

Part One and Intro to Spiritual Addictions

Spiritual Addictions

I looked "addiction" up in the thesaurus and found,

"a habit of activity, often injurious; a fixation, obsession, infatuation; a practice, constitution; dependency, reliance."

What depression and misery is addiction!  But how beautiful the saving grace of the Father!

As Christians, I believe we are all in a constant spiritual addiction recovery...from all sorts of sins.

Just as sinning is not a one-time thing, so also is cleansing not something we do only when we first come to the saving grace of God.  And just as new-born Christians are cleansed, so should we be made new every day by spending time with Jesus.

Proverbs 8:34 says,

"Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors."

Hebrews 4:7 says, 

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

I often harden my heart to Jesus’ calling and willingly follow my flesh into old and dangerous habits.  At those times, my image of myself is too big in my mind—I believe that I can place my trust in myself, that I am sufficient to be independent of Christ.

In Paul David Tripp's book Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy, he speaks of dependency,

"Human beings are simply not self-sustaining, and we were never designed to live as if we are...We were created to be dependent.  Dependency is not therefore a sign of weakness.  Rather it is a universal indicator of our humanity.  Humans are dependent beings.  Yet we do not like to be dependent.  It is the legacy of our fallenness to do everything we can to conceptually and functionally repudiate the doctrine of human dependency."

As Mr. Tripp states, we are meant to be dependent—on God.  And when we take our gaze and our trust from HIM, we often fall into a daily practice of sin and darkness. 

Proverbs 28:1 says,

"The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion."

I know that when I am in constant sin, I feel that every glance, every look is knowledgeable of what I am doing in the dark.  I flee from every hint of sin and cower in the darkness, cringing at signs of light and love, though I am not pursued by anything.

Job 22:13 says, 

“And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?”

How often do have I lurked in darkness, like Jonah, believing that my own sin was hidden from the eyes God!

Our Spiritual Rehabilitation

We must daily submit to the Father’s commands to renew our minds by prayer and the reading of His holy word.  God provides a wonderful rehabilitation for us.

I also looked up rehab.

Here are some of the synonyms,

"healing, therapy, refurbish, improve, mend, breathe new life into, renew, restore."

What refreshing, lovely words!  They remind me of the words spoken in Psalm 23,

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

The Lord is so good to us—He gives us such hope and restoration for our dark and weary souls.

Revelation 3:20 says,

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

God is a daily forgiving and loving shepherd of His sheep—he wishes to share the bread of life with us every day and He will not let the least of us fall away. 

His loving arms are always outstretched to us.

What wondrous love is His that He will take all of our sins away, day by day!

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To wrap this post up, why don’t I stop myself there and tell you something:
This whole post was because of something Mother introduced me to a few weeks ago. 

H.A.L.T.

(I'll explain what it means later)

I've found it so helpful.  It's an acronym used in addiction recovery.

Now let me say these few last things:

1.       I’m planning on doing a series on H.A.L.T.

2.       This was just a clarification post, although it might have seemed like a really long rant.

3.      You may be wondering what H.A.L.T. means.  Well you’re not supposed to know yet—I guess you can look it up on the internet, but I'm trying to keep you in suspense until next week.

4.       Although H.A.L.T. is not Bible-based, I’m planning on looking at it through a Christian perspective, so bear with me.

5.       That’s it!  If you really read all of that, you’re better than me—I probably would have skipped to the bullet points and the pictures.

Until next week, my friends, when I return with either Part Two: Hiding our Spiritual Addictions or Spiritual Addictions: H.