This is the second part of a series of posts that I will be sharing with you about dealing with addictions. Click HERE to read the first post (Four Clear Steps in Working Through Your Addiction).
In today’s post, I will be sharing about the HELP Jesus offers in our recovery from addiction. Please keep in mind, this is not a progression (e.g. master step one before moving to step to, etc…), but all four steps need to be implemented and we need to be making progress on them collectively.
Let’s review what we learned from the previous post:
Step 1: Draw Close to Jesus
Ephesians 4:20-22 (NLT) – But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.
For many of us, we have probably already started this process. We act out in our addiction and then afterward we get on our knees to pray and confess our sin to God; promising to never do that again. At that moment we feel both close and distant from God.
But there’s more than just confessing our sin; it needs to be a daily and maybe even moment by moment walk with God.
Think about the Garden of Eden; when Adam and Eve first sinned they felt shame and guilt. Then they covered their sin (nakedness) and hid from God. Their hiding from God was physical, He actually came down daily to “walk with Adam.” They had a relationship with God and God missed it.
So our first step in victory is to confess our sin to God and draw close to Him. Again, I will elaborate on this more in the days ahead and give you some specific applications.
So What Steps Can We Take To Draw Close To Jesus?
I really feel like I am giving you the Sunday School answer here but this is what we need to do.
- Have a vibrant prayer life
- Study the Bible in a way that causes life change
- Memorize specific Bible Verse
- Start believing the truth of how Jesus and God the Father think of me.
Christian book stores and church libraries are filled with countless volumes of books on these very topics. If you are not sure how to pray, please consider reading some quality books on the topic (Breakthrough Prayer by Jim Cymbala would be a good start). I have a resource on prayer that is video-based, you can find out more about it HERE. Rick Warren has a fantastic book on how to study the Bible in a practical way and you can find that book here. We will talk about the Bible Memory in the next post coming later this week.
Still, Struggling? Consider a few sessions of Life Coaching with me. You can find more information here, I would love to help.
