This blog is two-fold…being Eaten Alive and knowing exactly what you are doing.

Do you know that our drug of choice (DOC) is daily eating away at us while we are still alive? When the Apostle Paul spoke about his struggle to do the next right thing, Romans 7:15 he states, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” And later on in that same chapter, Romans 7:24 he further states, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

‘Body of Death’? Permit me to explain this ‘body of death’. Back in the day the Romans had a specific torture for murderers called the ‘body of death’. The murderer was tied face to face with the dead victim with absolutely no wiggle room. And for the next few days the maggots of the victim would eat him alive, crawling into any available opening such as the eyes, the ears, the mouth etc. What a torture. This would last for several days before he eventually dies. Get the picture? We would have preferred instant death.

We are now urged to look at our DOC in the similar manner as the ‘body of death’. We are tied or chained to our DOC and it is eating us alive. There is no wiggle room to escape unless we are completely removed ‘just in time’. Thus, if we are in treatment, we may have just escaped the ‘body of death’. But if we are still using …’on a run’, we are slowly being eaten alive by our DOC. What a way to die! We do not have to live like this.

The following analogy attempts to explain ‘Knowing exactly what we are doing’.

One day a man was driving down the road and sees a huge venomous snake in the middle of the road. It was emaciated and looked like it was about to die and/or crushed by the oncoming traffic. Although he knew it was poisonous he had compassion. He braved the heavy traffic putting his life in danger, picked the snake up, and took it to a veterinarian. The medical bill was high…thousands of dollars. Once the poisonous snake was brought back to health he took it home. The poisonous snake was placed in a specially prepared luxurious room. He really enjoyed the company of the poisonous snake. And one day out of nowhere the poisonous snake bit him without notice, and he slowly began to die. On his last few breaths he looked at the poisonous snake and said, “Why would you do this to me? I risked my life in traffic to pick you up, nurtured you back to health after spending thousand of dollars, and brought you home in a furnished room. And this is my payment? How could you? How dare you?” The poisonous snake looked at him straight in his eyes and said, “You know exactly what I was and what I was capable of doing when you picked me up!:

Can you relate? Same thing with your DOC. We know too well all of the resulting consequences when we pick up. Our DOC is that poisonous snake. What you sow is what you reap. If you sow your DOC you will reap the consequences of your DOC.

1 Peter 5:8 warns us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I am sure we would all agree with Peter. Our DOC is our adversary. And he is walking around like a roaring lion looking to devour us alive because we are not sober and lacking vigilance. While we in the meantime knowing exactly what we are doing. You think about it!

Remember, ‘nothing changes if nothing changes’, and ‘the same person will always use’.

Have a Blessed day in the Lord. You deserve it.

From the desk of Andy Ansola.