Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 23
- www.wikihow.com noted the following: “Make a list of positive changes you want in your life., think about how much your life will improve once you’ve kicked the habit. Create a picture of your life post-addiction. How do you want it to look?
- Maybe you’ll feel a sense of freedom you haven’t had in years.
- You’ll have more time to spend on people, hobbies, and other pleasures.
- You’ll be able to save money again.
- You know you’re doing everything you can to stay healthy. You’ll feel immediate physical improvements.
- You’ll feel proud and confident again.
We have a choice about what we put on the inside of us. We need light inside of us not darkness. We fill our lives with light by getting the Word of God inside us. We do that by reading the Bible, meditating on it, memorizing it, quoting it and hearing it.
At the point when the crisis hits something on the inside of you is going to be squeezed out of you. Self control is not just something that is going to come in like a band aid after a situation arises. Self control
is something that we develop. If you are a Christian you have a huge advantage because when you work hard to develop self control, the Holy Spirit works even harder to help you develop it.
One way we work to gain self control is by practicing denying ourselves. Always practice denying yourself of small things. Even by denying yourself things like too much sugar or TV is starting to learn self control.
Delay gratification. We want it and we want it now. Practice waiting until it is the right time to buy something or do something.
Practice everything in moderation. Most addicts need to quit their addiction completely. But it will help you to quit your addiction if you practice moderation in other areas of life.
Control the anger and other emotions. Self control is about calmly and slowly identifying the cause of your distress and irritation and finding a solution. Find calm and constructive solutions to your problems.
Take up sports or activities that teach you inner focus. Consider such activities as Bible study, prayer, meditation, etc. as forms of self-centering and learning to rely on God. These are excellent means for developing self-control.
Practice fighting temptation and learn how to wait until cravings go away. Cravings seem like they will last forever but they don’t. Keep doing other things and they will always go away.
What is your level of self control? If you are a one set a goal to become a 2 or a 3. If you are a 3 set a goal to become a 5 or a 6. Practice self control every day and ask God to help you with self control every morning, noon and night.
Matthew 12:43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
Some hard core addicts read this and say – Now that I am clean I got to make sure I don’t screw this up. I probably had a demon and I don’t want it back and I really don’t want his friends to come along for the ride. But we all need to pay attention to this verse. Spirits harass everybody. They come screaming in and if we you not living right they stay for a while. If we are not doing something to fulfil our purpose or preparing to fulfil it they stick around.
We get free from sin and the Holy Spirit gives us strength to fight back. But if we start to fiddle around in sin they are back. If we sit around doing nothing they are back. We are in God’s army and we are fighting a war. Those who choose to sit out the war will be at war with spirits and they will lose. Those who fiddle around with sin will also be at war with spirits and they will often lose. Those who go to war for Almighty God will also have to battle spirits – but it is not a fair fight. The Holy Spirit is waiting to win the war for those people. Waiting to empower those Christians who plan to do what God wants them to do.
Some of you want to be neutral and not pick a side. But if you don’t pick a side you will end up on the wrong side. But bad spirits hate the Bible, so to get them to leave – read it a lot. They hate it when you pray, when you read a great Christian book, when you listen to a great pastor or priest. They hate being around people who are always praising and thanking God for everything. They especially hate it when you remind them that Jesus shed his blood so that you can be free from sin and addiction. And yes they harass me too, but when I am on point they don’t stay for long at all.
Pray, Jesus put a guard over my mind and my willingness to think about my addictions.
Read John, 20, 2nd Corinthians 4 and Proverbs 18
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
Pray “Father keep me from temptation”.
If you are still stuggling you need to know exactly what leads you back into gambling. Today write out in as much detail as you can, the thoughts, behaviors, actions, emotions, triggers, and sins that lead you back to gambling. Ideally, you are organizing these signs by when they occur, i.e., the first sign when the issue is small, all the way to when it’s at its worst.
Now you can start to see a pattern. What happens that puts you 20% down that slippery path, what emotions put you 40% into falling, what behaviors (or lack of alternate behaviors) put you falling faster and faster.
What do you need to strengthen to avoid falling in the same way next time?
Pray: Father help me to have toughness to be able to say no to my habit.
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God has made us what we are [L For we are his handiwork/workmanship/work of art]. In Christ Jesus, God ·made [created] us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. Ephesians 2:10Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
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Thank you for reading day 23 of this program 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.
Day 11: Where the Spirit of the Lord is – there is liberty
Day 12: Learn how to worship God. Also try to develop positive addictions.
Day 13: Write out a letter saying why you want to quit
Day 14: Overcoming cravings and negative emotions
Day 15: You have some self control
Day 16: Have a list of coping statements. Have a list of substitute activities.
Day 17: How to find living water that will always satisfy you
Day 18: Do not have faulty beliefs abourt gambling odds
Day 19: Interview with a professional poker player
Day 20: What we can learn from Adam and Eve’s mistakes
Day 21: more great stuff from Adam and Eve’s mistakes
Day 22: Self control