Get Rid of Gambling: Day 33 for Gambling Freedom

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Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 33

One of the reasons people slip back into gambling is because they have gambling math and sometimes their friends have gambling math. Gambling math is – wow I won a grand yesterday at the casino. Real math is I put $565 into the slots before I won. I also lost $50 after I won. Real win was $385.

When your friend tells you about their big exciting win remember this. I do taxes during tax season. Someone came to our office and the first thing I heard was she won 29 grand at slots last year in one jackpot and 33 grand at another. Later I asked the preparer how much extra she had to pay in taxes for those wins. She said; oh, she didn’t win, she had 84,000 in losses to more than offset those wins.

You need to keep track of all wins and losses for at least six months to know the real math. And when your coworker says I won 2 large this week; I am really cleaning up with my gambling. Ask them – how much are you up over the last 6 months. They will lie or exaggerate at that point. But don’t worry that your little question will depress them, they are living in their fantasy world and you can’t bring them down.

Gambling math is talking about this week’s big win. While forgetting you still are in the hole by a mile for the month. Gambling math is you almost got out of the hole you have been in for 6 months and now you know you are an expert.

If gamblers really knew how much expert gamblers know (like poker pro’s) they would be much more fearful to challenge them. They know the exact percentage chance of how often their cards will win. They know the exact percentage chance of how often their cards will win from each seat at the table. They know your exact chances of winning against them 80% of the time. They know exactly at what points you are trying to get lucky and they know 80% of the time when you do get lucky.

These card sharks sit around drinking and discussing complex mathematical situations regarding how they can play it differently next Time. They sit around telling their pro friends the tells that they have on the fish they take money from.

In Texas Hold Em when pro’s get their aces cracked they cuss a little bit and then keep playing perfect mathematical poker.

When we get our aces cracked we have a fit then lose a big pot with sevens and then go broke with deuces.

Always be aware of when you are using gambling math verses real math. Gambling math is very unhealthy and it keeps you in the mud.
Use real math. 99% of pro gamblers make money every year. Most are smarter and more disciplined than brain surgeons. If you don’t make money (net) every year you need to quit.
Addiction is slavery. It tells you what to do, when to do it, where to go and how to act. Even if you love your addiction I want you to tell yourself 20 times a day that addiction is slavery. At its worst, addiction drives you to destruction and at the very least, it enslaves you into a habitual trap that will keep you from any chance of fulfilling your life given purpose.

Read Proverbs 31
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life

Why do I push people to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It is because we need to know Christ in order to get to heaven. The Bible says

Matthew 7:22-24New International Version (NIV)

²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Many expect to get to heaven, but the Bible says we must know Him. Seeking to be filled with His Spirit is a sure way to get to know Him. If you sort of skipped over my sections on being filled with the Spirit you may still be mired in the mud. You may want to review these sections (which started on day 15) again.

Matthew 7 tells us that many people who have accepted Christ and even some Church leaders will be told “I never knew you.” This chapter should make us fear God and fear hell. We should then strive to be filled with His Spirit and to get the sin out of our lives.

The more we are filled with His Spirit the easier we can get rid of gambling.
Every addiction is breaking the great commandment from Matthew 22:37 which says to love the Lord your God with all of your mind, soul and strength. All addictions are selfishness which is the opposite of loving God. Since God did not create us to be selfish, when we become selfish with addiction we will never be satisfied.

Selfishness includes: I should receive every whim and desire I want. The world I live in exists for my pleasure. My self-worth and identity come from things of this world – jobs, possessions, accomplishments, rather than from a relationship with Christ. I find pleasure which satisfies when I live for Gods glory. Worldly pleasures usually lead to disaster. Do we look to worldly solutions and pleasures to alleviate pain rather than Jesus?

Selfish people are takers not givers. Takers are never satisfied with what they consume. They always want more and more. The world is not designed to satisfy people. Only Jesus Christ satisfies completely.

The key is to remember that only eternal treasures are satisfying. God gave you everything so now we must give to others, serve and help others. Now decide to seek satisfaction in eternal rather than worldly things. Seek satisfaction in helping others.

Pray: “Father, reduce my love for _____ and help me to focus on _______ which will bring me eternal treasures which will satisfy.” I really believe God loves a focused personalized version you write of a prayer like this. Then you can pray it multiple times each day (each time must be sincere). How many times do you need to pray this prayer every day?

For those of you who are now overcoming addiction, you now need to start helping others. If you are still too early in recovery to start helping others in a one on one situation you can start by praying for other addicts. Pray: “Father, bring people to this website and give them a chance to overcome addiction, find your love, start to find their purpose and starting to find joy again. You may be able to help others by advising them to go to a self help group like AA. Think about, pray about and plan how you can help others both now – as well as in the future.
Read Matthew 5, Proverbs 28 and James 1

For a few people addiction is simply the result of a long term routine. It is similar to the routine you have driving home every day. You have gone this way for years. Now there is a way home that is one full minute faster. You try that way but it is not the same. You have always gone the other way.

But for most addictions it is much more complicated. Your addiction seems to have a life. You try to stop and it keeps dragging you back in (from now on instead of calling it it, we will call it Damon). You argue and fight with it (Damon), but Damon seems to always win. You plan on how you are going to stop and Damon sits you down at the kitchen table and tells you what you are going to do. You explain to Damon that you are really done this time. Surprisingly a new calm and confidence comes over you, He has stopped arguing with you.

The next day Damon sits you down at the kitchen table and explains to you that your boundaries are way too strict. Just because you have a gambling addiction doesn’t mean you can’t go to the Casino. Just last week you had to pick up Harry there when his wife refused to bring him home. You went there and everything was fine. Now the Guys are going to the Casino for just a little bit before they go to the game. You got away with going to the Casino last time. You can do it again.

You go to the Casino. You lose $1100. You only had $800 but Harry loaned you $300 which you promptly lost as well. This Damon guy is very tricky. If you love bar hopping His first trick is to flood your thoughts with how much fun it will be to go to the bar. When you defeat him on that he may stop trying to get you to go to the bar but now He whispers to you to just glance at your favorite pub and think about all the fun you had there. He helps you forget about all the destruction that was caused. Damon then explains to you that your problem was not drinking, it was going to the bar. One 6 pack would taste so good and you are strong enough now to control it. 48 hours later you wake up in jail.

Key Point #1 Strict boundaries are essential. Because you accidently got away with crossing the line means nothing. When you purposefully cross the line on borderline things, it will cause you to fall.

Damon also likes to tell you how bored you are. How frustrated you are. How you are going nowhere. How other people are letting you down. Take just a moment to think about specific ways he tries to trick you and deceive you. Damon seem to know whether he should come right at you with a full court assault or just try to trick you by getting you to lower your defenses. If you have been fighting addiction for a while you are getting better and better at fighting direct temptation. Now you need to shore up your defense. Great defense starts with working on your journal every day. I talked about journaling in my video “Quitting addiction exercises”. With journaling you write down all the overcoming addiction idea’s that apply to you in a notebook so that you can refer to them daily. This allows you to apply these idea’s consistently until you form new habits. Next we need to learn from history. In Genesis Eve was told to not eat the Apple. She loved God and was fine with not eating the apple. Then satan asked her: did God really say you could not eat the apple. Lie #1. He next told her about how great it would be to eat the apple. Lie #2. Then he said how she would be like a God if she just ate it. Lie #3 She had unlimited variety of perfect fruit to choose from. God said she could not have that one. Satan kept telling her that she had to eat it. She ate it. Let’s look at the event from Genesis 3:3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” ²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Now I will skip forward to the destruction that was caused by their disobedience.

¹⁶To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.” ¹⁷To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Whenever I hear this Bible story I think. I would never have eaten the apple. She ruined everything by eating it. God was providing their food, was protecting them and was going to let them live this dream life forever. But, the problem is that Damon does not tempt me with an apple. He tempts me with the thing I want most. And if I give in, I have created new destruction which is a result of my sin. Yes Jesus died on the Cross for my past sin, but now I have started the mad cycle again.

To stop the cycle we have to shut Damon up. We do this by repenting of our sins and asking Jesus to forgive us. Next we read our Bible every day, start to learn how to pray and find a good Church. As we learn how to obey the Bible a great change will happen. When we are good with God, now we have the Holy Spirit advising us instead of Damon. He starts to tell us the benefits of doing good. He fills us with love and begins to fill us with joy. He starts to show us the purpose for our lives. If you never look back at your addiction or sin you will now live a great purpose driven life. If you do look back you will struggle back and forth.

Key Point #2 Get the addiction out, get the sin out and don’t even spend one second thinking about your old way of life. This gets Damon out and the Holy Spirit in.

Read Matthew 19

Father, help me to choose living in your light instead of gambling. Knowing that as I learn to like other things to do (over time) – my joy overall will increase.

4. Checklist for avoiding relapse: Write down what attitudes and beliefs led you into addiction. For me the love of pleasure was a priority. That attitude brought about a lot of pain and destruction. I am currently focusing on being very aware of how great things are when I worship God vigorously and pursue the correct passions and purpose. If I improve my awareness of how great things are when I am vibrantly living life God’s way, the next time I fall into heavy temptation I will have more bullets in my gun to fight back.

4. Pray: Father help me to focus on the fact that gambling causes destruction. It always has and it always will.

If this article has helped you, share it with your friends. Share buttons are below the index.

Thank you for reading day 33 of this program to get rid of gambling.

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

Day 23: What to think about to develop self control

Day 24: What are your values?

Day 25: How to pray to fight addiction

Day 26: Which prayers are answered quickly – which prayers time more time and persistence

Day 27: How to fill the vacuum that addiction caused

28: Finding a good church
29: Knowing why you can’t quit can help you plan how to quit

30: How to eliminate the vacuum created by quitting

31: Tripping your addiction trap. Overcoming sloth

32: You need clean people around you if you are going to stay clean

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Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 33

Matthew 7:22-24New International Version (NIV)

Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 32: How To Quit A Gambling Addiction

Gambling Freedom in 60 Days: Day 34