I AM A SLAVE TO ALCOHOLISM
I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can't help myself, because it is alcoholism inside me that makes me do these evil things. I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old alcoholic nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it. It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I
inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But alcoholism is at work within me that is at war with my mind. Alcoholism wins the fight and makes me a slave to alcoholism that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by alcoholism? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my alcoholic nature I am a slave to alcoholism.
Look at Romans 7:15_and substitute the word alcohol for sin and see how it reads.