Drugs and Drinking no more, A 40 day program: Day 20
It is good to notice how the simple things in life are better when you avoid addiction. Yesterday I enjoyed sitting around talking to my wife. Cutting the grass was a nice relaxing experience. I watched and enjoyed sports on TV. I was not being driven by addiction. My whole day was better because of that.
Having said that, I love thrills. Yesterday I found a very exciting game to play which satisfied my thrill seeking nature. Instead of drugs for thrills you may want to try skydiving, hang gliding, auto racing, boxing, scuba diving, flying, platform diving, sailplaning, bungee jumping, skiing, ski jumping, wilderness adventure, river rafting, rock climbing or games.
Relationships: many of us have allowed relationships to drive us back to addiction. Relational discord happens when you allow others, to occupy the place that was reserved for Jesus Christ. What happens when another person becomes the center of your universe? You end up putting all kinds of pressure on the person who you want to complete you. They will never be able to do it and they will let you down.
Common situations. We allow another persons pain to be the center of our universe. Or another persons wrong doing. Even another persons affection cannot occupy the center of our universe. We will never be great at living or loving until we experience great love. When you believe and recieve Jesus Christ, what you get in response is unfailing love. When we move Jesus back into the center of our lives we can begin to find peace, joy and sobriety.
Thomas Horvath in his book Sex, Drugs, Drugs and Chocolate said the following to help get rid of this addiction!: “Addiction can be thought of as a bad habit. If you eliminate this bad habit, you will be creating a vacuum, an empty spot in your life. Nature abhors a vacuum. If you do not fill this vacuum with something new (like a good habit, a positive addiction), there is a significant risk that the addiction will return. For instance, if you end all you friendships because all your friends are users, but do not develop new friendships, you will get lonely. As your loneliness increases, it will be increasingly easy to go back to your old friends. Any repeated action or activity that serves your ultimate goals and values is a good habit. I suggested earlier that by living in accordance with your ultimate goals and values, you increase the chances for being happy.
What vacuum have you created by your goal to quit drugs/drinking?
You need a 3 pronged plan to fill this vacuum. Write out your plan of how you will fill this vacuum today, this week and this month.
We think our addiction is our problem. But the real problem we all have is that we fail to put Jesus on the throne daily. Yes we all have problems and get frustrated with life. Sometimes our prayers are not answered the way we want. But it is still best to put Jesus on the throne. He didn’t create all these disasters, we created many of them.
We complain, then we sin, then life gets even darker. Don’t do that. His way is always right and best even when we are confused. When we put Jesus on the throne His light fills our life. Then life is better. Try it, you will like it. Do it every day.
If you are a Christian memorize 2nd Corinthians 3:17 – Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Dont let sin ruin your life. When you let sin in, the Spirit of the Lord leaves. The Bible says we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
The sense in which we are to work out our salvation in fear and trembling is twofold. First, the Greek verb rendered “work out” means “to continually work to bring something to completion or fruition.” We do this by actively pursuing obedience in the process of sanctification, which Paul explains further in the next chapter of Philippians. He describes himself as “straining” and “pressing on” toward the goal of Christlikeness (Philippians 3:13-14). The “trembling” he experiences is the attitude Christians are to have in pursuing this goal—a healthy fear of offending God through disobedience and an awe and respect for His majesty and holiness. Obedience and submission to the God we revere and respect is our “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1-2) and brings great joy. Psalm 2:11 sums it up perfectly: “Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.” We work out our salvation by going to the very source of our salvation—the Word of God—wherein we renew our hearts and minds (Romans 12:1-2), coming into His presence with a spirit of reverence and awe.
When we repent of our sin the Spirit of the Lord returns. However Hebrews 10 makes it clear that we can run out of chances.
Psalm 147:11
the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
Pray “Father keep me from temptation”.
We often hold things back from Jesus Christ. We are like a person who has a big house who only allows God certain rooms. Rooms many of us have include TV or movies, sports, games, wrong friends, ambitions, hobbies, drinking, drugs, gambling, food, money and hundreds of other things. When these activities are sin or become sin because of overindulgence or even gray areas they become rooms we are holding back from God.
We say “God I am ready to do whatever you want me to do.” God says – give up your ambition to be __________ which you know I don’t like. Or He says stop doing _____ or looking at _________ or spending time with __________.
Now we are at the crossroads. Peter noticed that his best friend always says how it is good that I am not drinking anymore – but every time I hang out with him all I think about is drinking for the next 2 days straight. How many people know that you are not going to be a vibrant Christian when you are thinking about other things or looking at gray area things or having selfish ambitions or lusts?
Is the love of Jesus greater than what we hold back? Is His love less important than the rooms we cling to?
At the crossroads now we have to make a decision if we are going to sacrifice. Sacrifice our time, ambitions, lust or any other room we are holding back from Jesus Christ.
Sacrifice so that others may see the love of Jesus through us. A shining light – a bit of hope for the darkness that envelopes them.
When we give God every room He will tell us exactly what He wants us to do – and life will be like how God always meant it to be for us.
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 John 17 and 2nd Corinthians 1 and Proverbs 15
Thankyou for reading day 20: ways to quit drinking!
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
Day 18: How to pray to fight addiction
Day 19: Can we get our prayers answered?