When we open the Scriptures and examine how we were created, we see at least three core desires before sin entered the world. What were Adam and Eve created to have? Look at Genesis 1 and 2 and make observations about what we were designed to have.

The Journey of the Heart recovery process guides us back to the beginning to pursue the core desires of our hearts that we were designed to have. If our core desires are not met, we will look elseware for fulfillment and this is the path of addiction.

Our unwanted behaviors and addictions are the ways we seek fulfillment. How might your unwanted behaviors actually be rooted in good desires? What were you designed to have?

We were created to have intimacy with God. Adam and Eve were able to walk and talk with God face to face in the garden that He gave them. There was nothing that hindered their communion with God. Their relationship with God was full and complete. Can you imagine the satisfaction that intimate union with God gave them? And what pain that must have created when they broke that fellowship.

Is it possible to pursue intimacy with God here on this earth? It is! The Journey of the Heart recovery method asks us to dedicate our time and energy to pursue the intimacy with God that we were designed to have. We can walk and talk with God. He speaks to us from His Word. His Word becomes “the joy and delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). It is a “lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

His Word and prayer give us a direction for pursuing the intimacy with God that we were designed to have. It’s a journey, a process, but we can develop rhythms of connecting with our Heavenly Father.

It was God Himself who told us that it was not good that man would be alone (Genesis 2:18). So God created Eve to be with Adam. We were designed for intimacy with others. Living a life of isolation goes against our design, leads to pain, and will give us a desire to medicate. But this is a huge problem in our modern world where isolation is often viewed as a badge of honor. If we are to recover from pornography addiction, we must purposefully pursue intimacy with others.

“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25) Before sin entered the world we had nothing to be ashamed of. There was no hiding or blaming. We were free to connect with one another intimately, and this goes way beyond just sexual intimacy in marriage.

But now sin has entered the world and it works to destroy our relationships. We push away from one another, blame each other, hide, and seek isolation. The Gospel is the gateway for renewing intimacy with others where image bearers of God can be freed from their guilt and shame, lay their sins at the cross of Christ, and pursue intimacy with one another.

The Journey of the Heart recovery method invites us to radical pursuit of intimacy with others. We must push against our habits or desires to live in isolation. We must live without secrets, we must walk in the light and share vulnerably about what is true. This vulnerability breaks through shame and keeps us from walking in darkness. “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8)

God gave Adam the garden mandate: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Genesis 1:28)

Adam knew why he was in the garden. He had a purpose directly from God. It was a mission that gave him direction and fulfillment. Jay Stringer in his book, “Unwanted”, tells us that a lack of purpose is a key driver for addiction. Feeling a sense of purposelessness is a major sense of pain and cries out for medication.

The Journey of the Heart recovery process requires us to once again seek God for our sense of purpose. To find our calling, stop living for ourselves, and serve others. A self-focussed life is the life of addiction. But a purpose from God calls us to fulfill His design and love and serve those He has placed around us.

“if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10,)