The Power Of Addiction
In his first book, Sacred Romance, John Eldredge — and co-author Brent Curtis — hit on the way addiction works in our hearts.
Sacred Romance is a good introduction to the importance of the larger story that God has written and is calling to our hearts constantly. Addiction, among other things, robs us of authentic connection with the life God has for us. The roots of our addiction are firmly embedded in the hunger we have for eternity.
This is the power of addiction. Whatever the object of our addiction is, it attaches itself to our intense desire for eternal and intimate communion with God and each other in the midst of Paradise-the desire that Jesus himself placed in us before the beginning of the world. Nothing less than this kind of unfallen communion will ever satisfy our desire or allow it to drink freely without imprisoning it and us. Once we allow our heart to drink water from these less-than-eternal wells with the goal of finding the life we were made for, it overpowers our will, and becomes, as Jonathan Edwards said, “like a viper, hissing and spitting at God” and us if we try to restrain it. ”Nothing is less in power than the heart and far from commanding, we are forced to obey it,” said Jean Rousseau. Our heart will carry us either to God or to addiction. ”Addiction is the most powerful psychic enemy of humanity’s desire for God,” says Gerald May in Addiction and Grace, which is no doubt why it is one of our adversary’s favorite ways to imprison us. Once taken captive, trying to free ourselves through willpower is futile. Only God’s Spirit himself can free us or even bring us to our senses.
Notice that phrase “trying to free ourselves through willpower sis futile. That was my point in the post More Effort v. The Right Tools.
Intentional Warriors 
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