Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 7

Addictions have many causes, mental, physical, and spiritual as well as many others. But for hardcore long term addiction the spiritual aspect is often the dominant factor. Having said that, keep in mind that if you have a long term problem you need to consistently try everything that you can in every way to try to quit.

In this session we will start with the spiritual then see how it relates to everything else. So we will start out with a prayer. The prayer is “Father, help me to care only about quitting my addiction”. Obviously when we pray help me to care only we are not excluding caring about things like family or responsibilities, we are merely trying to exclude things that may lead back to addiction.

Example #1 We have our friend Mike the gambler, now clean for 9 days is called by a buddy who invites him to a sports event. The second he is invited he knows all his gambling buddies will be there. But what is the harm they won’t be gambling at the event. He goes and the very next day he is in full swing on a gambling binge, the type that has almost always ended with him being broke in the past.

In this example he fully cared about quitting his addiction but he also badly wanted to go have fun. And let’s be honest when we are disciplined and schedule an alternative event it will not always be quite as much fun. But if he had cared only about quitting his addiction he would have turned down the first offer where he knew he would fall into severe temptation and he would have found something else to do. He might be doing something only 80% as fun that Friday night, but he could keep his joy for the whole week and yes keep his money as well.

Test out for yourself to see that sin leads to your main addiction. Getting drunk or watching sinful TV or movies leads you back to addictions. For movie watching, wait for the movies to be on TV instead of paying for them. It is much easier to change the channel on a freebie. You have instant clean options with regular TV.

To get rid of this addiction we should make it a goal to be clean in all ways. Even when you stay clean from your addiction, if your mind is filled with dark evil things you will never find real joy. When we pray Father, help me to care only about quitting my addiction, we are directly asking God to show us if our movie channels or our this, or our that, are leading us directly back to our addiction. This is exactly the type of prayer that God answers. He wants you to be clean, filled with light and be fighting to get the darkness (sin) out.

When will our prayers be answered? Sometimes right away but often they are answered long after we want them to be answered but much quicker than we deserve to have them answered.

Psalm 31:16
Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.

To change your life completely we need to say no before we get to the crossroads of temptation. An instant no. Be quick with your no. God has promises for us if we master that habit. In Psalms 119 the Bible says I have banked your promises in the vault of my heart so that I won’t sin. Develop the habit of turning instantly from sin and lead a great life.

Let’s continue to watch detailed information about people who are trying to quit to see what they are doing. Bill determined to pray every day: Father keep me from temptation.

Lisa decided to make it a habit to pray at least 3 times per day “Lord, help me to always be moderate in all things.” Mike made it a habit to have a time and place to pray every day.

Bill is making it a habit to tell himself to care first about quitting gambling 5 times every day. For busy people we should say it 5 times per day, for others we need to say it every hour. To care first means to turn away instantly from any emotions, situations, temptations, wrong people or anything else that may trip us up.

Every day Mike worked at analyzing what he was doing that leads him back to gambling. Since his fall his is focusing on finding new friends and never going to the Casino again as long as he lives. Two weeks later he started to really understand how his mind and emotions played tricks on him. This knowledge gave him more skills on how to fight his addiction.

Read John 4, 1st Corinthians 4 and Proverbs 2 from the Bible.

Continue to read “The Purpose Driven Life”.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
For me stress can lead back to addiction. When I put a specific time limit on activities which raise my stress level, plus praying about being moderate in all things – I probably triple or quadruple my odds of success. What do you need to plan more often which will help you avoid your addiction?

Never give up. God loves you.

Thankyou for reading day 7 of this program to get rid of this addiction!

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Index

Day one: Quitting addiction exercises

Day two: It is important to admit you are powerless

Day 3: Learn the right way to live

Day 4: Getting rid of negative emotions

Day 5: Remember – money lost is not yours. Don’t try to get it back or you will lose more.

Day 6: Can you increase your pleasure by gambling?