Years ago there was a haunting song that became quite popular, “I want to know what love is ... I want to you show me..”  That is the cry of every man and women, and even every Christian.   Even people that know the Lord, can still be desperate to feel love.  Bono from the band U2 sung “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” yet he was a believer.   There are some believers who know the Lord but still never found what they were looking for in the church, among Gods people.   Everyone is looking for love; believers come to church expecting to find it not just from God, but from His people too.   Bonding is something that happens in families and it is a powerful bond that usually lasts for a lifetime. If a child is able to attach to others and begin to trust others like parents, they develop normally. Every emotional problem from addiction to depression has alienation or isolation as its root.   Even church-going will not fix it.  If all we get is religious exercises and not life, we don’t get better.   Life comes from our relationship with our Father and from life-giving relationships with people. What is not found in natural families is meant to be experienced in our new family the church.  The Bible calls it, the bond of perfection.  (Col 3.14)  It is a special kind of love; its Gods love found in and among Gods family. As we develop relationships with others in the body of Christ we are built up and built together by the joints or the bonds between us.

Friend, no alcoholic recovers on his own and if you allow your heart to be cut off from people and from relationships where there is real love, it will develop a hunger for a deceitful lust or desire in your life. Maybe for substances, sex, food or other addictions.  The empty-ness must be filled and it is designed to be filled with a relationship with God and others who are filled with God.