Drugs and Drinking no more, A 40 day program: Day 18
Live in the Light
The Bible says that Jesus will free you from everything. So if we are not free, what is the problem? The problem is that we still choose to plug in to the gray instead of into the light (white). Are our everyday habits border line sin and border line activities which we know from past experience will lead us back to addiction sooner or later?
Instead we need to “fight” to live in the light. Let’s look at someone who is fighting to live in the light. Adrian listens to 5 chapters of the New Testament every day. Spends a fair amount of time in prayer every morning and evening. Spreads the gospel to every messed up friend possible. (If friends with your old habit are influencing you instead of you helping them. You must still stay away from them). Works to increase in love every day. Tries to up the standards as often as possible.
Adrian is fighting to live in the light. Working to unplug from bad friends who reject living right and bad TV (what do you need to unplug from)?
Living in White areas means living in the Light. If we make a decision to stop living in gray areas we now need to do something else. Living in the light means doing today (right now) what the Holy Spirit wants you to do. The Holy Spirit has a severe shortage of workers at all levels. He does not want you to wait until you are perfect to be a worker. He wants you to commit to trying to live for Him before you become a worker.
When you are fully committed the Holy Spirit will have the green light to start to change you more rapidly. When we choose to plug into the light all the time, then – Jesus will free you from everything.
Toughness
Toughness is vital in learning how to gain control over drinking or drugs. When all goes wrong in our lives many people want to use drugs/drink. We need the toughness to just say no when events start to lead back to drinking or drugs. Work on your toughness everywhere. At work your boss is a jerk. A tough person does not let it ruin their day. At home someone yells at you. A tough person forgives and forgets. Your children act like monsters. A tough parent forgives them (after they discipline them) and treats them with love. Pray every day for toughness. When you are tempted to use drugs or drink it takes a lot of toughness to say no. Work on this and pray about it every day.
Say Good-bye to the Past
Fenigstein likes to distinguish between guilt—which can spur addicts to make changes in their lives — and shame — which can trigger a relapse because they hold onto the belief that they’re bad people. Sometimes, it just takes time. For deeper wounds, it might take more: validating the other’s point of view while apologizing and then, doing better. However, if an addict has reached out and cleaned up her side of the street, as 12 step programs call it, then she shouldn’t continue to feel shame. “Forgiveness is a deeper concept, [and] I don’t think that people in recovery give it enough attention,” Fenigstein says. “People want it to be quick, simple and easy, but it’s not. It doesn’t work that way.”
But how do I forgive?
Fenigstein believes that a key to recovery is disciplining oneself to focus on what can be learned from past mistakes, rather than continuing to feel bad about them. “[It’s about] assisting people to mindfully be in the present,” he says. “Addicts struggle a whole lot with giving themselves credit for what’s working because they feel so much shame and guilt about the past.”
He stresses the importance of support groups, prayer, guided meditation and forgiveness education.
Paul says he tries to imagine how the other person is feeling. “I tend to switch places with the person,” he says. “What kind of day are they having? What could be going on with them? Taking a moment to be in their shoes often helps.” Jane says that she likes to imagine the person she is trying to forgive in their best light. “We did have some good times, so I try as much as possible to focus on those instead of the bad,” she says. “It helps me let go, and reminds me that things are never black-and-white, or either-or.”
Howes suggests writing a letter to the person who hurt you; or, speaking to an empty chair, pretending the person is sitting there listening. “That can be really powerful in ways that people don’t even understand,” he says. “The purpose is to not stay stuck in that anger.”
Jim says that when he is consistent on getting the sin out and praying to forgive his dad it really changes everything. If you want to quit drugs and drinking easily learn how to be a prayer warrior.
How to Pray to Fight Addiction
The first thing you say when you pray is the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6:9-13 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Verses 12 and 13 are key verses for addiction. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Our debts, are our sins we have committed. It is wise to confess every sin we commit specifically to God. Yes He knows what you did. But we need to remind ourselves what we did so that we can remind ourselves about the destruction that is always caused by sin. To start to get help from God the key is to repent of our past sins and be determined to change. Now verse 13: And lead us not into temptation.
Key point #1 Pray sincerely every hour “God lead me not into temptation. This is a prayer God loves to answer. If you pray this prayer and also ask God where He wants to lead you, then you are really on to something.
Next you may want to spend 15 minutes praying to be filled with the love of Jesus Christ. We need to spend some time experiencing the Almighty God. He is real and he will answer some of your prayers positively. He loves to answer the prayer to be filled with love because God is love and he wants you to be filled with love the way he is filled with love.
The next question is, will he answer your prayer to quit your addiction? The answer is yes he will, but the question is, when will He do it. If you never ever look back at your addiction and if you have committed to God to never look back, he will answer your prayer today. For 99.2% of people, we want to look back. If you want to look back it will take a lot of prayer to straighten out your thinking until you no longer need to look back. If you still have a stash of booze, drugs or other illicit items that drive your addiction, you are leaving the door open to look back. Get rid of everything that triggers your addiction before you tell God you are done for good. Despite the fact that you probably won’t get an instant miracle you should still prayer several times a day asking God to help you. As you pray you will start to realize that other things lead directly to your addiction. Things like anger, frustration, hopelessness and your refusal to forgive others, etc…
Key point #2 It is important to ask God to help you know what emotions lead to your continued addiction. This is another type of prayer that God loves to answer.
Key point # 3 Have a list of what negative emotions trigger your addiction and pray several times a day that God will help you to start to control them. For example, after thinking and praying about it you realize that your anger problem often is a trigger to your addiction. Now you can attack your anger problem with prayer several times per day. Ask God to help you control your anger. Ask God to take your anger out of you. You don’t get mad because something goes wrong; you get mad because you have the anger in you. We have all known someone who remains cool in a situation where we would have blown a fuse. They remain cool because they are not filled with anger like most of us are. When you discover what emotions tend to trigger your addiction you then pray that God will help you to control these emotions. God will be steadily answering prayers to control your emotions as long as you stay clean. As you see God taking these negative emotions out of your life you will feel a great increase of faith. For me, I don’t get a ton of prayers answered in my life, but when I consistently prayer for God to take my anger away, He starts to take it away and I begin to have more control in all aspects of my life.
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Pray “Father keep me from temptation”.
Addiction is about wanting more. It is about searching for something to fill an empty place in our soul. To gain control over drugs or alcohol it will help to try to be vibrant. Being Vibrant is about starting to find your purpose then being moderate in all things so that we can fulfill our purpose. Being Vibrant usually involves quitting something completely that keeps us from fulfilling our purpose.
To be vibrant we need to always remind our-self that the high that comes from things like drugs, drunkenness, sinful sexual acts etc always lead to a vast emptiness. When we instead turn aggressively from our addiction and just as aggressively pursue a joy filled relationship with Jesus Christ, the pursuit is filled with joy and challenges and the end is filled with success, joy and a new found purpose for living.
Write down what you need to do each day for the next 10 days to begin to make your life vibrant. Read what you have written down each day for the next 10 days.
Read John 15 and 1st Corinthians 15 and Proverbs 13
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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