These are my top 10 tips. I hope they are helpful.
1. 10. Fight the frustration that others cause. We can argue with others for hours or for seconds. We can be upset with others for hours or for seconds. We can pray consistently that God will help us decrease in anger, help us to stop arguing, and help us to focus on other things instead of being upset with others.
Fight frustrations that we cause ourselves. Some of us choose to live our life in a way that causes us pain. Then when the pain blasts us, we fall. The key is to realize that we must stop making choices that cause us intense pain. Because otherwise, it is hard to quit.
Key point: We are at our greatest temptation point when our frustration makes us feel like we are justified to fall. But these points are the crossroads to where we can find joy, power, and freedom when we pass the test.
9. We need to be able to survive a bad day. No matter how hard we try to live right, bad days will happen. It is wise to pray to be tough, fight through it, and believe that tomorrow will be better. When bad days happen get into your activities list and get active. It really helps.
8. Plan and prepare for war. Have a journal and fill it with tips and articles about how to quit. Every day, add a bit more. Every day, study the key tips for you. Every day, do what you need to do to renew your mind and habits.
7. Increase your faith. Read the Case for Christ (Strobel). This book gives a mountain of evidence that Christianity is real. Read the Bible (faith cometh by hearing the Word of God). Believe every verse in the Bible as written.
6. Triggers: Have a concrete plan for every trigger you have. It is vital to be instant and aggressive in turning. It is vital to develop habits of being totally prepared for the things that trigger you. Renew your effort every day.
1. 5. Have a long-term focus. Addictions fun/thrill is short-term and it leads to depression. Be determined to have a great life, a great year, and a great month. Michael Jordan got championships because his only focus was on championships. Think about a great year, then a great month, then a great week. Pray about it 5 times every day.
I am long-term focused in everything except… I need to stop being stupid.
4. Prayer: This is a complicated one because prayer does work when we start trying to fight to obey the Bible. Spending time in prayer is huge. Fighting temptation with prayer is huge. Probably it should be higher on the list.
3. Activities: We are told repeatedly to have a list of activities to try. Try things, stick with them for a few days. Keep trying new things. At some point, you will like some of these activities.
2. Positive addictions: A positive addiction is an activity that you now love, do often, and are excited about. You try jogging, piano, guitar, writing, chess, prayer, and now love it so much that you do it for hours. It has changed from being a distraction idea into something you crave.
I have become obsessed with sports. This was by design. Now I watch a lot less risky TV.
1. Fight temptation with the top Bible verses for quitting. Whip out that list of verses and go over them, repeat, repeat, repeat. It is impossible to say these verses too often. It is hard for satan to continue to tempt you for long when you quote them (but he will try again). When he tries again whip out your verses again. He really does not like that game at all.
He only beat Adam and Eve because they did not use this technique. Jesus used this technique and satan did not beat Him.
Write your own top 10 skills. Then be obsessed with them and live them. You can do it.
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