Fighting Addictions with the Power of God: Part 2

 He Said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am Strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I have decided to  make this theme, Fighting Addictions with the Power of God. The first installment which was last week's blog should be considered part 1. This is part two. I do not know how many parts there will be as I try to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit. Generally the Holy Spirit shows me a need, I pray and meditate on it, and then I begin to work on a message or blog. I have gotten away from doing this, which is, in part, why I haven't spent much time blogging. I certainly welcome any and all questions and comments here, provided that they are not attacks on my Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ. If you would like to debate with me the finer points of doctrine and theology, I gladly welcome those inquiries as well, I would just prefer that you email me personally about them so that we can lay ground-rules.
 It should be noted here that ALL scripture in the remainder of this series SHALL be from the New International Version, taken in Context from the Celebrate Recovery Bible. I thought since this is a series about Fighting Addictions with the power of God that this would be appropriate. As time goes on you will notice that I change Versions of the scripture based on the ability for different versions to be more effective based on the vernacular used, the theme of the series, etc.


Last week we began a series on Fighting Addictions with the power of God. I close friend and brother in Christ asked me in the comments about scriptures that I would use in support of this series. Knowing that the Bible addresses addictions and overcoming them through God's power, but not having ever been through any kind of addiction recovery group, I was unsure of specific verses that would address this topic, so I turned to an Elder, Associate Pastor, and Counselor in our church, and he directed me to the Celebrate Recovery Bible. So that being said, We will Jump into the first study on fighting addiction with the Power of God.
The Celebrate Recovery Bible is based on 8 principles, which are found in the Beatitudes. They are as follows:

Principle One: Realize I'm not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable (Step One).
                                                                      "Blessed are the poor in spirit." (Matthew 5:3)

Jesus had just finidhed is first stint of ministry. This takes place just after His Baptism in Matthew 4, His temptation for 40 days in the wilderness, the calling of His first disciples, and healing the sick. At this point in His early ministry, He had begun to attract large crowds that were following Him from city to city. Let's look at Chapter 5 in it's entirety.
5:1 Now when He saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sad down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who morn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are pursecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you falsely and say all kinds of evil against you because of me. REJOICE and be GLAD, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

It is important here to note some words, for example Beatitudes. Beatitude meanes supreme blessedness. Persecute. Persecute means subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, esp. because of their race or political or religious beliefs.

Principle Two: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover. (Step Two).
                               "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)
This is where many people have difficulty based on their own life experiences. We all have our own pre-concieved notions on how life should be. We have our own biased opinions on how things should work. It is easy to believe that we are alone in the universe when we are living in the dark. It makes it hard to see except immediately in front of us. What happens when you turn on a light? You can see further. So if we have this limited view, that we are all that there is, we are just schelpping our way through life, and one day we will die, and everything will have been in vain, it is easy to get depressed and down-trodden. Once you get into this mindset, it is very hard to get out. Human beings have an inherrant desire for companionship, We have a God-shaped hole in our Heart, our Soul, our Being. Remember the story from Genesis, in the Garden of Eden? Let's look at Genesis 2:18 "The Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." And he caused the man to fall into a deep, coma-like sleep. Then He took a rib from the man, and out of that, and the dust, He formed a mate for man, Woman. Let's jump back into Chapter 2:23 The man said, " This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman' for she was taken out of man."

So we have an intrinsic need for companionship. A God-sized and shaped hole in our being, our soul. As humans we look to fill that up with anything that we can try to fill it with. It usually starts out being something good. Something that makes us feel good or limits our inhibitions. This can be anything. For some of us it is Sex, Pornography, Alcohol, Drugs, Food, Stealing, Online Gaming, any number of things. We initially do these things because they seem to help us to not feel alone. Not feel so helpless. But  they quickly turn into habits, and then as time wears on, and our resistance to doing them is weakend. Time continues, and We are now numbed to the effects, the feelings that these used to satisfy us. So we do more, bigger, badder things. At this point, I think you must admit, it is easy to see that these things have become an addiction. Addiction An addiction is the fact, or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing or activity.