Depending on the power of God for an addiction-free life

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Several people think knowing the standards for right and wrong is a yardstick to living an addiction-free life. Well, it is not; because many people who do that oftentimes fall into serious addiction issues.

Not everyone gets who is an addict today decided to be one, but the circumstances surrounding their life make it impossible to say no.

The power of God creates a standard for right and wrong that cannot be flawed. Moving close to God and his people is a crucial step towards living an addiction-free life. The power of God gives people the strength to overcome temptation and the things that cause addiction for people.

Addiction is not something that happens in a day. It takes several times of practice to get overly attached to drinking, taking drugs, or getting acquainted with a behavior. Sex addicts do not get addicted to sex on the first day of having sex. It is the frequency that results in addiction.

If one exposes oneself to the power of God, there will be the direction of things to do and things not to do. Even when people fall into temptation, God is always ready to take them back and set them on the right track. The love of God sees beyond fault and can aid you to live an addiction-free life.

How to get rid of addiction with God’s power

It is not only pivotal to know God, but you should also consider the things that would help you evade an addiction problem. Here are some key things to consider;

• Believe in God
• Pray regularly
• Study the word of God consistently
• Fellowship with the people of God
• Make Godly friends
• Watch the events you attend
• Have faith in your prayers
• Get a spiritual mentor

5 benefits of the church in helping the addict recover

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Addiction for many comes with a feeling of disappointment, abandonment, hopelessness, unhappiness, and low self-esteem.

People fight this much uproar of constant disorder for years and seem to find no way out. These people suffer years of depression and other mental disorders during this period.

It is not an easy thing at all to fight addiction alone. It takes the power of God and the people of God to break the siege of addiction. The following are a few benefits of the church in helping addicts recover from their addiction.

Love and care

Most addicts do not get enough love and care from their friends and loved ones when it becomes evident that they are addicted to something. Some people even get addicted to drugs and behaviors because they do not get enough attention.

The church is a place where people are not seen for who they are but who God wants them to be. Addicts will get all the love they need to fight their addiction in the church.

Spiritual guidance

The people in church also provide addicts with spiritual guidance on how God’s power can heal them of their situation. Pastors, Reverends, and other ministers of God can pray with addicts and shed more spiritually light on their issues.

Joint prayers of intercession

Intercession is an effective way of getting things from God. The people of God can pray for the addict collectively and individually for divine intervention. Many of such prayers often work like magic, but it is a miracle.

Counseling

Pastors and spiritual leaders are usually great spiritual and psychological counselors.

Most of them take courses in theology, psychology, and human relations which helps them to be great at counseling people of different ages. Addicts can also leverage this to get clarity on issues they cannot handle themselves.

Regular visitation and follow up

The church creates a community of people that naturally checkup on each other. For addicts, it could be an escape route from loneliness, thinking, and addiction triggers.

The essence of the church in addiction treatment

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Addiction treatment is a sure way to get the life of an addict back on track. Without the inclusion of addiction treatment, the addict could be wandering for the rest of their life seeking ways to get better. If you are a believer struggling with addiction, you need the church around you.

One of the primary tools you need to get back on your feet from addiction is support, and what better way to have a huge chunk of support from the church. It is important to mention that the church provides physical, mental, emotional, financial and most importantly, spiritual support.

The church is a place where stigmatization and prejudice is not expected to exist because it is not the way of the kingdom. According to the scriptures, the church is mandated to stand behind their own during times of distress.

Spiritual support

Prayers are offered up to God by the church and the addict would be interceded for. When it comes to recovery from addiction problems, prayer is an effective means to facilitate this.

Hence, when the body of Christ joins their faith together to pray for their beloved, the individual would get better with time.

Financial support

Depending on the nature of the individual’s addiction problem, opting for treatment comes with financial challenges.

If the individual lacks the needed financial constraints, the church would rally round the individual to provide financial support that ensures the individual gets the best addiction treatment.

Physical support

There are some addiction cases where the individual would need to remain within the confines of the rehab.

At this point, the individual needs support from family, friends and acquaintances. Staying alone at the rehab could take a toll on the mental health of the individual. Hence, they need familiar faces around them from time to time.

One of the privileges of belonging to a local church is the love and care you receive during downtimes. And it is essential to replicate these good deeds to those around you when they are in similar situations.

How God’s Love helps to break addiction

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Addiction is an obsessive and compulsive brain disorder that is difficult to overcome. When an individual is addicted, it becomes the center of their interest and every other thing becomes secondary.

Also, addiction is one of the reasons why some individuals are not in good terms with family and friends.

This is because when addiction sets in, the mindset and ideologies of both parties are like two sides of a coin. The addict feels rejected and unloved, while their loved ones feel pained and disappointed.

This is why when an individual opts for a rehab, the counselor or therapist aims to resolve the dispute between the addict and their loved ones.

It is imperative to mention that most people have not come to understand God’s love and this is why they still struggle with addiction. Addicts need to know that if the world turn their back against them, only God would be there for them. Although, several addicts find this hard to believe.

God’s love comes with so many unimaginable benefits that Christians have not fully explored. The urge that comes with addiction can be quelled once you acknowledge the depths of God’s love for mankind. Without God’s love, it is challenging to fight off addiction without relapsing.

Also, acknowledging God’s Love helps you see yourself in a new light. As the Bible rightly said, your body is the temple of God and addiction is a sin that pollutes your body which is God’s temple.

When you understand this, you will see more reasons to stop your addictive habits and with time, you will lose interest as you continue in addiction treatment.

In addition, you will come to love those around you even if they display prejudice towards you. With time, you will be able to follow through with the addiction treatment and your health would be restored to normalcy.

Conclusively, God’s Love is all we need to get through various challenges in life including addiction.

THE POWER OF GOD IN BREAKING FREE FROM ADDICTION

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Addiction is a powerful brain disease which is very difficult to conquer, and there are people who have lived almost their whole life fighting the disease.

Research has shown that, it is quite difficult for an individual to fight off addiction on their own, and they need an external help to get better.

Some people are not aware of the fact that, God helps in breaking free from addiction. They are probably concerned that, God has other important matters to attend to, and their addiction problem is not something God would worry himself about.

However, it is interesting to note that, God is interested in all aspects of our lives, including our addiction.

Addiction entraps our heart, and it affects our relationship with God; it strains our walk with God. For those who believe in the concept of a higher power, it affects their belief in the long run.

One of the tricks of the devil, is to make you depend on a harmful activity or substance, giving a false sense of normalcy. This makes us to lose our identity in the sight of God.

Someone who is addicted will not be able to view himself or herself in a worthy manner. They are usually of the belief that they are rotten, and nothing can be done to help them.

God is our heavenly father, and he is the only one who would accept us, even if the world rejects us, and turns our back against us.

Our basis for creation, is to be dependent on God for the purpose of being loved, experiencing peace, security and the likes. God loves us even though we feel shameful and worthless.

Coming to the realization that God loves us so much, and this is the only thing which can rid us of the scars of our past, that is when we can move forward.

When you invite God into your heart, you will experience the peace and love of God which is higher than all understanding, and would free you from the grips of addiction.

AGAPE LOVE AND ADDICTION TREATMENT

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People who have mental disorders and certain forms of addictions, can combat their illness by carrying out agape. It is even essential that in the addiction process, agape should be incorporated. Agape is a word which has Greek origin, and it fundamentally means selfless love. It should be stated here that; this form of love is different from the other forms of love.

As described in the Bible, Agape love is the purest and sincere form of love, and when compared to other forms of love, it is evident that it is the best kind of love. Agape love is an unselfish type of love and everlasting form of love, which basically means that you have set your personal desires aside, and have decided to cater for the needs of others.

During addiction healing, there is a need for you to put yourself before others, thereby ensuring that all iota of selfishness is better controlled. The best individual form of addiction recovery is selflessness.

Showing agape love comes with lots of advantages in the addiction treatment process, as it ensures that the mental health of an individual is restored back to normalcy, making the individual brand new.

For mental disorders and addiction, it can be said that it is not the actuality of the addict. The person would want to satisfy himself, not minding the fact that there are adverse effects which comes with the addiction.

When addiction is not promptly given attention to, it has the power to induce isolation to the addict, as they would want to think about themselves alone, instead of putting others into consideration. They would be careful enough to ensure that, people around them, would not have any form of influence on them.

As the addiction progresses, the side-effects become very severe, and the individual becomes lonely on a regular basis. If care is not taken, thoughts of committing suicide begins to come into play.

Practicing Agape love is not something which can be done in one instant, it is a practice which demands commitment. In the long run, it would be beneficial in restoring the mental health of the individual.

The Hole Only God Can Fill

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What addiction and mental disorder tell a person is that they are broken, unremarkable and without great meaning. Putting more stock in the thought patterns of addiction and mental disorder than in the thought patterns of seeking and praising God result in a tarnished view of one’s self and one’s purpose. If an addict accepts the thoughts and ideas that form in the addicted or afflicted mental faculty, they will not have the hope and will necessary to conquer their addiction. It is imperative for addict’s to embrace God’s message of truth and love that ensures we are beings called to the highest purpose, and that our place in this world is enormously valued.

In the midst of addiction, many people have claimed to have felt a calling, something deeply personal and mysterious. The calling is to recognize what their true identity is; not a servant to alcohol or drugs or some other addictive thing, but a miraculous being that is loved by its creator. This feeling does not occur only in the midst of addiction. The biblical book of Ecclesiastes explains this feeling as something that God wrote within us, a sense for eternity that is laid on our hearts. We have an innate instinct to seek him and his ways although we can not understand him. This inherent quality within us is part of the reason we know we can trust God’s promises.

This God-shaped hole in our hearts is very important to an addict’s recovery. Having true faith and trust in a loving God is a strong reason to fight addiction. Most people who sucumb to addiction do so because they do not see how immensely important it is for them to be a whole person and pursue the deepest questions of their soul. Addiction, often combined with mental disorder, blinds an addict from the truth of their identity in Christ and in God, which is that we are all called to live incredible, meaningful lives of adventure, love and purpose.

Selflessness as the Opposite of Addiction

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Christ set the ultimate example of selflessness by dying on the cross for humanity. There has been no greater example of selflessness in history than that of Jesus Christ. Selflessness is very interesting when one considers the effect that it has on the person exhibiting it. Selflessness has the power to change a person’s life for the better by reversing destructive thinking and replacing it with healthy thinking. Interestingly, studies have shown that people are more mentally and physically healthy when they live in productive harmony with their community and their support systems. This means living selflessly – not focused on what is good for themselves but focused on what is good for their group. It would seem that we were intended to live this way.

Consider addiction for what it is: pure selfishness. Addiction happens when someone discovers something that makes them feel good, and the person begins to pursue that thing and obsess over it so relentlessly that they stop caring about everything else in their life, including their relationships. Addiction isolates a person with something they are idolizing, making it impossible to be selfless. Knowing that people were meant to exist in healthy community with one another, one can see that it is impossible to be addicted and to be healthy because selflessness is not an option.

Now think of what happens when selflessness is allowed to conquer addiction. Acts of selflessness defeat addiction by reversing its effects. Selflessness makes you available to your friends, family and acquaintances, taking you out of the isolation that addiction locks you in. Being selfless reminds you that the contributions you make to the lives of others should be your top priority, and that means you need to continue being responsible in order to properly care for yourself and for those around you. Whether you are a parent, child, sibling or simply a friend, your presence, heart and mind are required to help others along. If you are struggling with addiction, remember that you are needed by others and let selflessness change you for the better.

What Christ Did for You

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The power of Christ’s love is transforming, so much so that a person’s life will not resemble what it used to be when they fully accept Christ’s love. Sinners repent, wrongdoers ask those they have wronged for forgiveness and selfish people become charitable. This sphere of influence extends to addicts as well. Addiction takes a powerful hold on people, but not as powerful as Christ’s love. There are many who believe that Christ’s love is, in fact, the only force powerful enough to conquer addiction. What happens when an addict fully accepts the love of Christ without inhibition is beautiful. There are many accounts of addicts making the most overwhelming progress they have ever made in their recovery when they accept the love of Christ.

Jesus Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago. It can be difficult for some to relate to events that happened this long ago, so putting Christ’s love into a modern context and making it personal can truly drive it home. Jesus was the son of God, and was therefore perfect in how he loved and cared for people. Everyone who has ever lived must be held accountable for what kind of person they are. God sent Jesus to live among us and ultimately die for us in order to save us from ourselves. In dying, he took on the burden of our judgment so that we could have eternal salvation. If we were to translate this kind of love into a personal metaphor, it would be like our own parent or guardian dying for us. Picture an alcoholic, selfishly addicted to something that will eventually kill them. Say the parent of that alcoholic knew that the only way to save them from their alcoholism was to drink all of the alcohol they would ever have access to in one event, giving themselves alcohol poisoning and dying. If you insert your own parent or guardian into this metaphor, you can begin to understand what God’s love is like.

This metaphor is heartbreaking, of course, but the story of Christ does not end in heartbreak. The son of God experienced death as a man, but three days later, he reversed death and lived again. He proved that natural death is not the end of life. He demonstrated his power over death by conquering the grave. He gave us a glimpse of the eternal life that can be ours if we choose to follow him.