Drugs and Drinking no more, A 40 day program: Day 26
No matter what we have done today, yesterday or this month; we can still worship God! There is a Bible story about a man who had led such an evil life that he had 2000 demons living in him. But when he saw Jesus he worshipped Him. You may keep dropping the ball time and time again, so you think – Jesus wants nothing to do with me anymore. But you can still worship. I am not telling you that you get an automatic ticket to heaven because you worship God while still sinning all over the place. But I am telling you that you can still worship God, ask for forgiveness (again) and start over again. While you worship God ask Him to help you come up with a plan for change for today, this week and this month. If you develop the habit of worshipping God He will help you with your addiction. God loves to answer this type of prayer. So make a habit of worshipping God and then you can pray about your addiction with complete confidence and faith.
To survive overall in life we maximize the good times and minimize the bad times. That is one of the things that you will learn on day 26. Why do rock stars and movie stars commit suicide? There are several reasons and we will talk about all of them. The first reason is because they dwell on the bad instead of the good. They have millions of people worshipping them and millions of dollars but, instead of thinking about that – they always think about the bad.
We must learn to think right especially in the bad times – cause if I think right, I will do right (act right). Don’t let the bad eat up the good. The devil loves for you to highlight the thing in your life that is wrong. Don’t give in to fear, defeat, hopelessness, or temptation. Your worst day will become your best day if you focus on Jesus. Philippians 4:8New International Version (NIV) says 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. The 2nd reason rock/movie stars commit suicide is because they don’t know their creator. If you have everything and you don’t have Jesus – you have nothing. If you have nothing and you have Jesus you have everything. I personally knew 2 people who had nothing (or maybe less than nothing) in life, but they had Jesus. These 2 people always were happy and always had a purpose.
One thing from your past or present can so consume you that is causes you to miss your destiny because you won’t let it go, or you won’t focus on something else. Maybe they did do you wrong, maybe they are now doing you wrong, maybe you are divorced, maybe you were abused, but don’t let the bad eat up the good! Satan will help you focus on the horrible thing that has happened in your life. Let it go and pray to Jesus “help me to let it go” as many times as it takes to break free.
You can break free from your past. The best way to end old relationships is to start new ones. A Relationship with Jesus, with healthy friends, with healthy activities etc.
Pray: Father give me wisdom to know what to say and do so that I can help other people. Pray: Father help people to be delivered from addiction and to be saved today.”
There a multitude of reasons that people have a drug/drinking addiction. There are many reasons that you started this habit but let us first look at two reasons why many people can’t quit.
Drugs/drinking addiction is a difficult habit for two types of people. The first group are people who lack the self discipline to change. The latter group are people who see the destruction drugs/drinking causes them but when push comes to shove they just don’t care enough to change. Both groups are well aware that drugs/drinking have messed up their lives but neither group have the tools they need to overcome their inner demons.
A few people fit perfectly in the first group and some people are examples of subjects from the “we just don’t care group.” But many people are a combination of the two groups. To successfully overcome a drug/drinking problem you need to analyze which group you are more a part of.
Take a solid twenty minutes or more to think about why you are so completely hooked on drugs/drinking.
What percentage would you give the “I just lack the discipline” part of the equation. _______
What percentage would you give the “I just don’t care” part? _______
Knowing what your reason for not being able to quit is very important because if you ignore why you can’t quit you may very well ignore the exact advice you need the most. For example if you know that your bigger problem is that you just don’t care. Then I will tell you to pay special attention when I recommend a book to inspire you. My teaching you to say three times a day that “drugs/drinking will cause me financial destruction” will not work for you because you just don’t care. But if you can read a great book that will inspire to care a little more you can start to make progress.
Quitting an addiction is a lot like becoming a track star. To become a track star you must deny yourself certain things (fatty foods, extra rest etc). But just as important you must work at doing things (running, lifting weights and eating extra protein).
People who become track stars live their life like they are surrounded by a hard plastic bubble. They refuse to give any opening to excess foods like sugars, fats etc. They give no opening to the party lifestyle. They hang around with people dedicated to training not people who have a wild lifestyle. They read about and watch people who are successful in athletics. They think about how to train better, how to run more effectively, how to strategize a smarter race. They have a 100% focus on what they want to accomplish.
People who want to become track stars (but fail) do not take care of their bubble. They may train hard but their sexual lust opens a hole in their bubble. Or their pride opens a hole in their bubble and they don’t listen to their coach. Or they think more about other things and lose their focus on training. This opens up a big hole because they start to not even care about winning any more.
Other people pop their bubble when they detox at home, right from the start because they don’t train consistently. They will run but not lift weights. Run and lift but consistently overeat. Work hard but do the opposite of what their coach wants because they insist on doing it their way.
When we repent of our addiction before Jesus Christ we are sealed in the bubble by His blood. This is a key technique that will help you to quit this habit easily. But we carve openings in our protection through sins, habits, grey area’s, bad friends, looking at the wrong things, thinking about the wrong things etc. I can’t list the million ways you carve a hole in your protection. But it is vital that you list and understand the main things you do which ruin your protective shield.
It is just as vital that you list and understand the things that you are not doing which cause the bubble to burst. Maybe you are willing to read the Bible but you are going to think your way not God’s way. You are willing to pray but only pray that God will solve your problems not change you. You are willing to help others, but you are going to keep Christianity on the down low. You are not sure they will be all that accepting of that. You are going to work at quitting that addiction but you only put aside a few minutes a day to work on that. You have more important things to do.
Remember, when your bubble has openings in it – dark forces will slip in and cause confusion and temptation. The solution is rapid repentance and taking care that your shield is solid without any openings for the enemy to come in through. The permanent solution is to treat your quest to overcome addiction just as seriously as the track star takes winning. They allow nothing to come into their lives that will derail their training. They always do everything they need to do to prepare for the race.
Take 5 minutes to analyze what causes openings in your protection.
Read John 23, 2nd Corinthians 7 and Proverbs 21
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life.
Some of you feel like your life has been ruined. If this is you read the book of Job from the Bible. Job is the story of a man who lost everything and still he did not sin or blame God.
Pray: Father give me wisdom to know what to say and do so that I can help other people. Pray: Father help people to be delivered from addiction and to be saved today.”
Thankyou for reading “Reasons to Quit Drinking or Doing Drugs.”
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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
Day 18: How to pray to fight addiction
Day 19: Can we get our prayers answered?
Day 20: Overcoming relationship problems
Day 21: Finding a church that can help you
Day 22: Overcoming addiction exercises
Day 23: Don’t worship pleasure – serve others instead to find real joy
Day 24: Always planning will help you stay clean
Day 25: Don’t condemn yourself