by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
I’ve always been certain that once you made up your mind to leave drugs, you would be able to do it. You did it before and stayed free for five years. But I’ve also seen your mule-headed determination. If you approached being free from drugs and living the Christian life the way you sometimes dig in to do things your way, there would be no question that drugs would lose out. I think that is why I’ve been disappointed hearing you say that you don’t know if you can stop using or even commit to leaving drugs. I know that when you say that, you aren’t even trying.<\/p>\n
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you<\/em>” (James 4:7). I know it happens. I’ve seen it happen. Not because of anyone’s personal strength of will but because it is only one half of the equation. The full verse says: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you<\/em>” (James 4:7). The way out of Satan’s trap is through submission to God. Sadly, too few are willing to give themselves completely over to God. I thought you had that day you were declared not guilty. I think you actually did that day, but Satan got past your defenses shortly thereafter. It isn’t that God isn’t your way of escape; you stopped trusting His promise.<\/p>\n “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it<\/em>” (I Corinthians 10:13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There has always been a way out of your sins. You’ve been avoiding the truth. I’ve been waiting for your return. Don’t be long.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Way of Escape by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I’ve always been certain that once you made up your mind to leave drugs, you would be able to do it. You did it before and stayed free for five years. But I’ve also seen your mule-headed determination. If you approached being free from drugs and living…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65821","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65668,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/have-i-become-your-enemy\/","url_meta":{"origin":65821,"position":0},"title":"Have I Become Your Enemy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Have I Become Your Enemy? by Jeffrey W. Hamilton When I chose to be your friend, I knew there would be rough times. It is rare for two people to always see eye-to-eye. There have to be times when friends need to tell each other things the other person really\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65688,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/independence\/","url_meta":{"origin":65821,"position":1},"title":"Independence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Independence by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I was thinking about you today. Thinking about the choices you've been making. You've told many people that drugs are not the way to get what you want out of life. In fact, you've stated that they are keeping you from the things you most\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65816,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/the-worse-lies\/","url_meta":{"origin":65821,"position":2},"title":"The Worse Lies (Searching)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Worse Lies by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \"The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves. We live in denial of what we do, even what we think. We do this because we're afraid. We fear we will not find love, and when we find it we fear we'll lose\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25976,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":65821,"position":3},"title":"Searching for My Friend","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Searching for My Friend by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Once again I lost a dear young friend to the seductive snare of drugs. It grieves me to the depth of my heart to see a life full of potential and capable of great joy being twisted toward ruin, sadness, and loneliness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Searching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/thinking-of-yourself\/","url_meta":{"origin":65821,"position":4},"title":"Thinking of Yourself","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Thinking of Yourself by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith\" (Romans\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65870,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/a-common-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":65821,"position":5},"title":"A Common Problem (Searching)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A Common Problem by Steve Klein Do you tend to have problems that no one else has? If so, this article is for you. And it might surprise you to learn that I know what your problem is. Your problem is that you think your problems are unique, and your\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65821\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}