One day when I was eighteen years old, I was driving around my hometown for hours with a friend of mine. We were anxious and becoming more and more frantic as we would go from location to location checking with friends and acquaintances. What were we desperately trying to find? Someone who would sell us some marijuana because we had just run out.
Did I think I had a problem at the time? Besides the fact that it was illegal for me to buy what I wanted, and I REALLY wanted it and couldn’t find it, at times I would get honest with myself. I realized that I was dependent on smoking something to be satisfied or happy and it was wrong for that thing to have a hold on me. In addition when I came down from being high, it wasn’t good at all. At times I was lethargic, and my short-term memory was failing.
The American Addiction Center states that it is a myth that psychological addiction is not as serious as physical addiction and that they are not mutually exclusive. After smoking marijuana for a year, I began taking hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and mescaline and had bad experiences, but kept on taking them.
Now marijuana is legal in some states. That does not make it right and does not take away the dangers.
When I got introduced to The Way International and began believing God’s Word, I got delivered. I consider myself as being truly rescued from a disastrous life. I saw that Jesus Christ gave his life for me and God raised him from the dead so I could be delivered from temptations. I was complete in Christ, nothing lacking. I developed a wonderful confidence and trust in God, whereas before I knew in my heart of hearts that I was not living as God intended. Continual fellowship with fellow believers was the best environment for my new freedom. My memory problems subsided, and I was actually able to memorize a great deal of scripture which increased my believing!
I Peter 5:8:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
I am truly thankful that someone had enough love to invite me to a fellowship and undershepherd me into the Foundational Class. I am thankful that God loved me right where I was at.