There’s a tug-of-war inside many believers.
The feelings thinking one thing.
But the gospel saying another.

Paul says,

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21

You may still feel addicted.
You may still feel anxious.
You may still feel bound.

But the Bible declares something truer than your feelings: you are the righteousness of God in Christ.

I’ve seen this firsthand in the Prison Ministry.

Many men desperately wanted to be free from drugs.
They tried willpower.
They tried effort.
They tried making promises to themselves.

And yet, after release, so many ended up back in the same cycle — not because they were weak, but because they were still relying on their own strength to quit.

But there was another group of “overcomers.”

They weren’t told, “Stop your addiction.”
They were told, “This is who you are in Christ. You are righteous in Him.”

And something shifted.

The moment they stopped seeing themselves as “drug addicts trying to change,”
and started seeing themselves as righteous men learning to walk it out,
the power of addiction began to break.

Not by striving.
Not by discipline.
But by identity.

One by one, I watched these men walk out with a different anchor.
When challenges came — and they always came — they no longer needed drugs as an escape.
They turned to Jesus, the One who carried them, strengthened them, and gave them a new way to face life.

The same is true for sickness.
You may feel what you feel — but you are not what you feel