Weight loss success in 20 days: day 14
One important discipline to learn is toughness. When all goes wrong in our lives many people want to eat. We need the toughness to just say no when events start to lead back to eating. 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 indulge it takes a lot of toughness to say no. Work on this and pray about it every day.
- Checklist for avoiding relapse: Write down places, people and activities that you need to avoid to stay off the slippery path that leads you back into addiction.
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 99.9% 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 chocolate or other 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.
Read Proverbs 8
Continue to read the Purpose Driven Life
Understand when and where am I most tempted. Am I alone then, or who is with me when I am most tempted? Know the bad situations that you get into and say 5 times per day: I will not _________ (fill in the situations that slay you.
Overcoming temptation with the Bible. “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”.
What The Bible Says About Addiction is my new 260 page e-book which is filled with new information about quitting addiction. My book is filled with a large number of ideas about quitting addiction and renewing the mind. It is amazing how differently we think when we do things God’s way. It is encouraging how focused we become when we do things God’s way. Writing this book completely changed my mindset – I believe that reading it will do the same for you. Click here to access it. Please leave a good review if you like it.
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Thank you for reading day 14 of this program: How to overcome temptation.
Index
Day 1: Cravings
Day 2: Develop positive addictions
Day 3: Start an overcoming addiction journal
Day 4: Controlling emotions
Day 5: Don’t sell your pleasure backwords
Day 6: With the Spirit we have liberty
Day 7: You have some self control
Day 8: Have coping statements
Day 9: Living water
Day 10: Learning from Genesis
Day 11: Consequences in Genesis
Day 12: Self control
Day 13: What leads to setbacks