Drugs and Drinking no more, A 40 day program: Day 22
What if we were given a brand new start to life? Put into paradise in the Garden of Eden. Everything brand new except that we still have our same old thoughts and ways of thinking. What advice would really help you change your life and get rid of this addiction?
I would say: “Dear Self, you are getting some of the destruction out of your life by reading several chapters of the Bible which has increased your faith. You are spending time in prayer every day which has helped you learn why and how to overcome sin and addiction. You are focusing on treating others with love and praying about being filled with love. This has caused you to realize that people are more important than any addiction. You are focused on finding and fulfilling your purpose which is filling you with joy.
But remember, satan will come into the garden. He will bring new updated tricks and temptations. But they will be the same old tricks and temptations disguised as something new and great. So today and every day focus on the fact that _____ steals your joy. Focus on the fact that sin steals your joy. Focus on the fact that being a slug and not fighting to fulfill your purpose steals your joy. Instead choose Christ who fills you with joy.”
Some of you have not experienced this great joy. But you have experienced great darkness and depression. You only continue to read because you know what you don’t want. But please understand – you can’t be doing everything we talk about without finding joy. Some of you are doing 25%, others 50%, others 75%. Sell out and give 100%. Sell out and do everything. You will never regret it if you do.
If you know that addiction steals your joy than you can use that information as a weapon. You can say during your high temptation times: _____ steals my joy.
The Classic Christian Writings book “Show me Your Love” noted the following:
“Christ is our advocate. He appears in the presence of God to prevent any new alienation and to continue the state of friendship and peace between God and us. He makes our cause His own and acts for us in heaven. He is touched with a most tender understanding of our troubles and dangers. He is not only one with us by way of representation but also one with us in respect of sympathy and affection.
Christ our advocate tracks our cause and business in heaven as His great and primary design and business. It is as if our concerns were so attended to by Him there that all the glory and honor which is paid Him in heaven would not divert Him one moment from our business. He pleads the cause of believers by His blood. Unlike other advocates, it is not enough for Him to lay out only words, which is a cheaper way of pleading, but he pleads for us by the voice of His own blood. Every wound He received for us on earth is a mouth opened to plead with God on our behalf in heaven. No friend in the world is so generous and bountiful to this as Jesus Christ is to believers.
No friend in the world loves His friend with as impassioned and strong affection as Jesus Christ loves believers. There is no end of the account of Christ’s love.”
One of the biggest keys to quitting addiction is to know (and have organized) what exercises you need to do to overcome the addiction. On this web site and on many others there are mental exercises you can do. What is needed is to have a journal to write down every exercise you come across so that you can reference them at any time in the future.
The way I would organize the journal would be to reserve the first 4 pages for exercises you know you would like to do every day. In the next section I would jot down idea’s that seem to be good, but ones that you are not sure you want to review every day. Over time if you change your mind about one of the exercises, you could promote it to the front everyday section.
You can write down key points from my articles or any articles on the internet. You can put in idea’s you get from overcoming addiction books. You can write down idea’s you get at addiction help groups you attend. The point is to write down all the great idea’s you hear or read that you think will work for you, so that you can have instant access to them in the future. Most of us don’t realize how quickly we forget things. We can’t afford to forget things that affect our future, family, finances, freedom and many other things.
Every day keep adding ideas that work for you. You can choose to work on your journal all day. But if your addiction is long term it is more important to make it a habit to review it or work on it every day.
Your use (or lack of use) of a journal will tell you exactly how much you really want to quit your addiction. If you can’t spend four minutes per day reviewing and doing mental exercises you probably have a good chance of staying addicted. On the other hand if you start the journal and are careless with reviewing it every day you have also learned something. You have learned that one of the reasons that you are still addicted is because you are not dedicated enough to having a new routine. For more severe addictions you may need to refer to your journal several times each day to that you will remember to do your exercises consistently.
Even when you are having one of those days where you strongly suspect that you are going to fall, still, review your journal. Maybe it will help turn you around. But it will at the very least keep you in your new routine as long as possible. You never know when fighting off that craving for as long as possible will lead to you never giving in again as long as you live.
Intoxication
Intoxication makes the body comes first instead of the Spirit. Putting the Holy Spirit first is how we find real joy and purpose. Run from sins that quench the Spirit. If you think that your addiction is also a sin that quenches the Spirit you need to get additional help from people who understand how sin affects addiction. Find a Pastor who is experienced in helping people who have addictions. If your current Pastor or Priest can’t help you, find one who can.
When we change and start doing things God’s way He will start to bless us and start to help us get rid of this addiction. When we are sincere He will help us every step of the way.
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
Fulfilling your purpose will help you change your life.
Help others with prayer. Pray “Father, bring people to this website and give them a chance to overcome addiction, find your love, start to find their purpose and to start to find joy again.”
I need your help. My new book “What the Bible Says About Addiction” is available for sale on Amazon. If you want a copy please purchase one and leave a good review. This book along with this course will help you change twice as fast. Writing a good review is your way of helping the next person. I need a few people to help me by buying and reviewing this book. No one knows it exists and I am sure it will help a lot of people. Get all the details here to access my new book at Amazon.
Ephesians 2:10 Amplified Bible (AMP) 10 For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].
Read John 19, 2nd Corinthians 3 and Proverbs 17
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Thankyou for reading day 22 of this detox program in your fight to get rid of this addiction.
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Index
Day one: How to overcome cravings
Day two: Would believing in a higher power be good for you?
Day three: Quitting addiction exercises
Day four: Does God answer pray?
Day five: Starting to understand that we can’t increase our pleasure for the whole month by going back to our addiction
Day six: Planning our day to keep addiction temptation to a minimum
Day seven: We find liberty (or start to find liberty) from addiction when we find Jesus
Day eight: First fruit of the Spirit
Day nine: Benefits of worshipping God
Day ten: Getting rid of negative emotions and overcoming cravings
Day 11: How to be blessed by God and self control
Day 12: Have a list of coping statements
Day 13: How to have living water so that you will never thirst again. How to become a christian.
Day 14: Adam and Eve show us what we do that causes things to go wrong
Day 15: Consequenses of doing wrong
Day 16: Self control
Day 17: What leads back to using and self control
Day 18: How to pray to fight addiction
Day 19: Can we get our prayers answered?
Day 20: Overcoming relationship problems
Day 21: Finding a church that can help you