Drugs and Drinking no more, A 40 day program: Day 32b
Daily Thought: Addiction is Slavery
“The destructiveness of addiction lies in our slavery to these things, turning desire into compulsion, with ugly and loveless consequences for ourselves and our world.” ~ Gerald May, Addiction and Grace, p. 41
Today I watched a show called Kingdom Connection. On my TV system it is on at 9:00 AM on sunday morning. He had a guest Christine Caine on the show who runs a ministry to try to stop human trafficing. In 2013 there are an estimated 27 million people who are slaves. Many of these slaves are sold as sex slaves.
His guest told a dramatic story about how she rescued Three woman who were sex slaves in Turkey. The woman had been in slavery for over a year. When they were dramatially rescued one of the woman asked Christine “why are you here” Christine answered saying “There is a God in heaven who loves you and He has redeemed my life and He wants to help you”. She then told her about the love of Jesus and how He had changed her life.
The girl was crying, but then she asked Christine “if what you tell me about your God is true, why didn’t you come sooner”. This question had a dramatic impact on Christine. If the story of Jesus is true: how that He loves us, died for us, saves us, has mercy on us. If it is true, why are we not going sooner to help people in need.
This is why in a quitting drugs or alcohal program we read the Bible every day. This is why in a quitting drugs or alcohal program we read the purpose driven life and pray aggressively about finding our purpuse. We need to start very soon – helping people in need.
When Christine was asked what can we do. The first thing she said was that we can pray for their ministry. You can pray every day for her ministry, or 3 times a day, or 5 times a day. You can do the same for my ministry.
You can watch the full interview with Christine Caine at www.jentenzenfranklin.org
Read Psalms 2
Repeat three times daily “Addiction is slavery – I refuse to be its slave”.
If you want to quit drinking or drugs easily, be very aware of when you are on a slippery slope.
We get a feeling we are getting close to falling on a Tuesday and then everything goes wrong on a Wednesday and we are almost doomed. But the problem is not what happens on Wednesday the problem is what failed to happen on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I have rarely seen someone totally fired up about Christ on Tuesday fall on Wednesday. But I have seen people fired up for Christ on Sunday morning who get into sin on Sunday afternoon. Then they don’t get into the Word for 2 straight days. Then a bad day hits and they fall apart.
They don’t realize that someone else just as messed up as them fell into sin Sunday afternoon and practiced rapid repentance. Rapid repentance gives you the ability to make a right decision when temptation hits. Rather than almost being forced into a bad decision.
They also spent extra time in prayer out of remorse that day. Then they faithfully prayed and studied the Word for the next two days. And everything fell apart for them on Wednesday as well. But they had a fighting chance to overcome because the Holy Spirit was with them.
“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently…” Tony Robbins
Of course Tony is preaching positive thinking which is good. But in addition to positive thinking we need positive actions. What if on Sunday morning we tried to find someone at church who could mentor us. You don’t have to tell people “I am an addict and need a sponsor.” Just say to them – “I am a new (or renewed) Christian and I need to be taught how to live as a Christian. Ask someone who is your same gender and keep asking people until you get help.
Ask your Pastor or Priest if they have any suggestions. Try listing 3 Christians who could help you. Contact each of these people and ask them to disciple you. Tell them you need help with discipline and self-control. If you can come up with 5 specific area’s you need help in that will let them know where to start.
When you have that rotten day when everything goes wrong you have a huge advantage when you have been doing what you should be doing (like Tony says – consistently).
Pray: Father help you me always to be balanced. Be balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Pray: Father help me to align with you because when I am doing things your way – we are more powerful than any substance can be.
Read Matthew 4, Proverbs 27 and 2nd Corinthians 13
- Checklist for avoiding relapse: Always practice moderation in everything and always try to identify what activities you tend to overindulge in which lead you down a wrong trail.
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Thank you for reading day 32 of how to quit drinking and drugs.
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
Day 26: Knowing why you can’t quit gives you clues to help you quit
Day 27: Knowing why you can’t quit gives you clues to help you quit
Day 28: Anger leads bad to addiction – get it out
Day 29: Set up a time and place to fight your addiction daily
Day 30: Expert planning each day can help you stay clean
Day 31: Coping skills for emotions and temperance
Day 32: How to overcome cravings