Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 11
One big problem that many gamblers have is that they just don’t know what to do. If you are a Christian you are told in the Bible that you were created to do things (helping others) that give glory to God.
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God 1 Corinthians 10:31
So if we spend a ton of time chasing after get rich quick schemes we are doing absolutely nothing to give God glory.
If you are not a Christian you may want to try it because when we have the Spirit of the Lord with us we will find Liberty.
16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord2 Corinthians 3:16-18
Look at the HOPE we should have for real change as we focus on learning how to keep the Spirit of the Lord near us. We get the Spirit of the Lord near us when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. But we know for sure that when we fiddle with sin we lose our Liberty over sin and over the chains of gambling.
Consider making it your goal to do everything to the glory of God. This will lead to liberty over sin and liberty over gambling.
Jonny Forgot His Trigger
Jonny was falling apart again. Life was running him over and he was losing his desire to live life the right way. Last month he needed to work a lot of overtime. His hot water heater died and he needed a new one. This month he was asking for as much overtime as possible. He had no reason for doing that – and now he is remembering why that was a bad idea. This was how he used to live back when he was a gambling addict. Push himself relentlessly until he was exhausted and then use that as an excuse to gamble.
Jonny felt a little stupid at that point. You see, he was in the middle of the 2nd time through a 40 day program. He had identified “working himself relentlessly as a trigger to relapse”. He knew what he had to do. He went into his bosses’ office and explained to him that he had taken on way too much. His boss quickly let him know that he would do everything he could to make an adjustment as soon as possible. The minute he left his bosses office he felt closeness with God again. On his first day off he had time to pray, read the Bible and he even remembered that his buddy (who was worse off than him and was open to hearing about how great Christianity was) wanted to spend some time with him and talk about how to get his messed up life together.
He called up his friend, set up a meeting and felt joy in his life for the first time in weeks. Abruptly the temptation which had been haunting him 24 hours a day began to fade. Then he remembered that when he was busy trying to follow his purpose temptation sometimes even disappeared. Maybe that was what the Bible was talking about when it said that when you become a Christian you become a new creature.
Hosea 10:12
Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
Lets continue to follow the live of people striving to quit:
Bill continued to focus on Bible study and he read Psalms 9 from the Bible.
Mike continued to read “The Purpose Driven Life”. He also purchased the highly recommended Gambling Addiction Client Workbook by Perkinson.
If you want to start living for the Glory of God pray about it. Lisa determined to have a time and a place to pray every day.
Jim continued his new habit as he prayed Father keep me from temptation.
Lastly if you are not a Christian but you would like to become one, here is how to do it. #1 Confess your known sins to God #2 Ask him to forgive you for your past sin. #3 Ask Him to be your personal Lord and Savior.
Join a program that will help you. Find a good church where you can find a pastor (usually from a smaller church) who can work with you on your addiction. #5 There is power in prayer. Pray about your addiction. Will God give you an instant cure? Sure he will to the 1/10 of 1 % of those who will stop looking back at their addiction. But for the rest of us who want to look back because we are stupid, there is no instant cure. But we still need to pray because when we pray and are right with God the light goes on in our life. Then if we mess up it is very obvious that Gods way is best and that Christianity is the only real thing we have in the scope of an everlasting lifetime.
We must forgive others.
Slots Slots Slots
People have 4 slots in life that they fill up with various forces. If we have committed our lives to Christ then Jesus is often in the #1 slot. Every person puts something else in each of the remaining slots. Things like money, getting stuff, lust, gambling or entertainment. To determine which things fill yours look at where you spend the most time.
A fully committed Christian like Paul would have Jesus in all 4 slots. He would have Jesus as his center, his world, his existence. If you or I gave Paul all of our physical and mental addictions he would start to shake them off on week one. Why? He knows he has something better. He would put up with the shakes or throwing up or whatever all week and he would praise and worship Jesus all day, always.
What do you need to change today to replace the forces in your life which are keeping you in bondage with a focus on Jesus.
Example: You realize TV is a force that you spend a lot of time on.
#1 Say 5 times per day: I will get in 100% of my prayer time today. If I don’t, I won’t watch any TV tomorrow. #2 I will plan and pray about fulfilling my purpose before I settle into TV fantasy land. #3 If I watch even one sinful thing on TV today I will not watch anything tomorrow. #4 I will ask Jesus what He wants me to do today. I will focus on following Christ by being willing to do what He wants me to do today (there is almost always someone you can help or support). #5 I will focus on increasing in love before, during or after moderate TV viewing. Jesus love is a powerful force which helps to break bondage. Increasing it always helps you get closer to permanent freedom from your main habit.
Prayer is one of the best ways to break down the wall of unforgiveness in our hearts. When we begin to pray for the person who has wronged us, God begins to fill us with His Spirit.
We also see ourselves in a new light, guilty of sin and in need of forgiveness. If God did not withhold his forgiveness from us, why should we withhold forgiveness from another? How many times do you need to pray per day to forgive _____? For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (NIV)
We also forgive so that our prayers will not be hindered:
Repentance in the Bible is a condition you must have before you can be saved. To repent means to change. “With addiction it is the same thing, we need to change. A change of mind” – a decision, a choice, a determination of the heart, a deliberate exercise of the will – in which one determines to act differently in the future than he has in the past. As a Christian to change we must hear, believe and obey God’s will to understand how to change. With addiction we must hear, believe, study and be disciplined with renewing ourselves in order to change. Do we have genuine sorrow for the fact that we fell back into addiction again? Have we thought about and tried to understand why it was so wrong?
In Christianity simply admitting one has sinned is not enough. Some people know they have sinned but don’t care, or at least don’t really regret what they did.
Joel 2:12,13 – Turn to God (repent) with weeping and mourning. Tear your heart, not your garment. God wants, not mere outward expressions of grief, but sincere sorrow. We must sincerely wish we had never done the act.
2 Corinthians 7:10 – Godly sorrow leads to repentance unto salvation. One who does not repent cannot be saved, and he cannot truly repent without sorrow.
A person may admit he did wrong and may even stop committing the sin, but that does not prove he regrets what he did. He may think it was justified under the circumstances, but he simply has no reason to do it again.
It is also possible for a person to know he is wrong and be sorry without really making up his mind to change. Some people have the idea that repentance just means being sorry – if they just admit they were wrong and say they are sorry, everything is forgiven.
But repentance is a decision to change. Why is this important?
- Repentance Is Essential in Order to Develop Proper Attitudes.
We can never please God till we develop a proper state of mind. We can never quit addiction untill we develop a new way of thinking.
Proverbs 4:23 – Keep your heart diligently because out of it are the issues of life. People do wrong because they chose to do wrong. In order to start doing right, they must change their mind and decide to do right – repent.
The mind is where we decide what we will do. This is why our state of mind is so important.
Romans 6:17,18 – One who is a servant of sin needs to be made free from sin and become a servant of righteousness. To do this, he must obey God “from the heart.” You cannot obey from the heart until you have decided in your heart to obey. That decision to do right is repentance.
Joel 2:12,13 – Repentance must involve the heart – the inner man. We can never please God till we get our heart right. That happens in repentance. When people know what God wants but will not do it, they lack repentance. (They may also lack faith, love, etc., but one thing they definitely lack is repentance.)
If your past actions have hurt someone else you need to apologize and then make restitution (if restitution will not make things worse).
If you have decided to eliminate gambling from your life you need to change and develop the proper state of mind. Study why your addiction is wrong – at every level. We think if we gamble and don’t lose a lot and no one knows or even cares that we did no wrong. A great Christian thinks he did a terrible wrong if he wastes even one day in self indulgence instead of helping people or preparing to help people. Pray “Father renew my mind and help me to understand why my addiction is wrong and give me the wisdom to know how to work to begin to change”.
Read John 8 and 1st Corinthians 8 an from the Bible
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Thank you for reading day 11 of this program in an effort to get rid of gambling.
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?
Day 7: Staying clean in all ways helps you quit the addiction
Day 8: Decide what pain and pleasure you want
Day 9: Analyze what leads you back to your addiction
Day 10: Change your emotions and your mindsets. Stop believing that your big score will come in.