All too often we think we can make our unmanageable lives manageable again on our own. How wrong we are! In our Scripture reading for today from 2 Kings 5, we find Na'aman, a commander in the king's army, seeking Elisha's help to be cured of leprosy. Na'aman quickly dismissed Elisha's instructions. However, Na'aman would find out God's way is the only way for him to be healed and be brought to faith.

The same principle is true with our addiction. Our way of attempting to get sober, stay sober, and have lasting freedom and peace from our addiction fails. It's by God's grace and help that He puts people in our lives to help us medically, emotionally, and spiritually. It's through the Gospel we know we have everlasting freedom from sin and freedom from addiction.

God protects a person's name and reputation in the 8th Commandment.

Addicts have all too often sought to destroy someone else's reputation by lying about the person/people who confront the addict out of love about his/her addiction. Instead of taking the person's word's in the kindest possible way, the addict goes out of his/her way to ruin the other person's reputation as a means of self-preservation.

Listen to what Jesus has done to restore our reputation before our Heavenly Father by what He has done to take away our sins.

A pastor once told his catechism students, "The 7th Commandment is about protecting 'stuff'." Yes, he said "stuff". The "stuff" the pastor was alluding to were the many spiritual and physical blessings God bestows on all of us.

God has blessed us with so many spiritual and physical blessings. Sometime we waste and abuse those blessings to keep our addiction going. In so doing, we steal from God, our families, and ourselves when we keep feeding our addiction at the expense of providing for our families and giving back to God the first-fruits of our labor.

Even though we waste and abuse the blessings God gives to us, God gave us His one and only Son, Jesus, who didn't waste the opportunity to save us from our sins. Jesus paid for our sins with his perfect life, with his blood shed for us on the cross, and with his rising again from the dead so that we can have new life with Him. Because of Jesus, we are motivated to use and enjoy the blessings God has given to us faithfully.