God's Word on That

Category: Addiction

Promises in dealing with overcoming addictions

  • We Have Our Part To Do

    Lord, I have come with weeping; I have prayed as You brought me back. You will lead me beside streams of water on a level path where I will not stumble, because You are my loving Father (Jeremiah 31:9) and You have promised.

    God can direct our paths if we will but let Him

    My Merciful God I have learned the hard way that nothing good lives in me — that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do good but cannot carry it out (Romans 7:18). But in You I have the power I need.

    Father God, Almighty One, You have warned me for my own good not to trust anything about my heart unless it is fully surrendered to You. My heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. I will never be able to understand it. Yet You, the Lord God, search the heart and examine the mind (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Please help me to recognize that the primary target of deception is my heart. In other words, I must be careful not to trust feelings and emotions on their own. I must wear the breastplate of righteousness so I will do the right thing even when I don’t feel like doing the right thing. In the meantime, Lord Jesus, I ask You, please, to knead the right kind of feelings into my heart until I can become strong in this.

    Father, please work in me to understand that sometimes You lead me also on certain paths to humble me and to see what is in my heart (Deuteronomy 8:2). Not that You don’t know already, but You want to show me. Purify my heart, Lord, so You will take joy in what we find.

    Loving God, Father, I am now one of Your chosen people. O God, I acknowledge and accept as fact that I am wholly and dearly loved. In response, teach me how to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. “To put on the nature that is mercy in action, kindly in heart, and humble in spirit… and above everything else to be truly loving” (Colossians 3:12 Phillips).

    Father, I desperately need Your Spirit to rid myself of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like a newborn baby, lead me to crave pure spiritual milk, so by it I may grow in my salvation (1 Peter 2:12).

    O Mighty God, please help me to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate and to show true humility toward all men (Titus 3:2).

    Father, You have said fear of the Lord is to hate evil. You hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse speech (Proverbs 8:13). Edify me to have a healthy fear of You that abolishes pride, arrogance, and perverse speech.

    Dearest God, as one of Your own children, please direct me to flee from sin and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11).

    Father, help me to remember in my impatience that the end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

    Father, You are teaching me that pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice (Proverbs 13:10). Please help me to discern the pride that is involved when I am quarrelsome.

    Lord God, please tutor me gently to listen to advice and accept instruction, so that in the end I will be wise (Proverbs 19:20).

    Lord God, You have told me that in the last days many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate one another (Matthew 24:10). O Father, please keep me from ever turning away or turning cold.

  • God Will Help Us Overcome

    Lord God, surely You desire integrity in the inner self, and You teach me wisdom deep within (Psalm 51:6). Please expose to me the deeply embedded lies I’ve believed and replace them with permanently engraved truth.

    God is always supporting His own.

    Do not withhold Your mercy from me, O my Lord God. May Your love and Your truth always protect me (Psalm 40:11). Father, please help me learn how much Your truth protects me. Without it, I am vulnerable to the enemy and to my own flesh nature.

    Father, help my soul to find rest in You alone; my hope comes from You. You alone are my rock and my salvation. With You as my fortress I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on You; You, dearest God, are my mighty rock, my refuge. Help me to trust in You at all times. Remind me to pour out my heart to You, for You are my refuge. (Psalm 62:5-8)

    God Father, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of anything but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which You have called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). Help me to forget all past failures, or even achievements, and to focus on pressing forward with You now.

    Lord, please help me not to be like ancient Israel whom You taught to walk and then forgot You. Help me to realize without a doubt that You are the one who heals me. You have led me with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; You lifted my yoke from my neck and bent down to feed me (Hosea 11:3-4). Help me acknowledge You daily, and never to forget who teaches me how to walk.

    Lord God, I acknowledge to You that, like the ancient Israelites, I eat but am often not satisfied (Leviticus 26:26). Help me not to confuse the hunger of my soul with the hunger of my body. If I eat physical food and am still not satisfied, help me discern a far greater need and bring it to You. O loving Lord, You are the only one who can truly satisfy the hungry soul.

    Father, according to Your Word, he who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry man even what is bitter tastes sweet (Proverbs 27:7). I am asking You in Jesus’ mighty name to make even the thought of any harmful substance [or harmful word] on my tongue bitter. Restore in me a taste for what is good and wholesome. Please.

    Lord, I belong to Christ Jesus. Therefore I have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24). O Lord Jesus, help me to live in the reality of this liberating crucifixion! For I know that my old self was crucified with You, my Savior, so that this body of sin might be done away with, that I should no longer be a slave to sin, for anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:6-7).

    I will not lose heart, for inwardly I am being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).

  • To Overcome Addiction

    Addiction is a yoke that convinces us we must wear it to survive. It is one of the cruelest of all yokes because it deceives us unmercifully and ruthlessly. It comes to us like a friend, promising to bring comfort, but no ungodly master is a more unyielding dictator. Nothing makes us feel more powerless. The accuser of the brethren chides us constantly with his tally of failures, and convinces us that we are unable to derail the miserable cycle of self-loathing.

    But no matter whether your addictions are to substance or behaviors, God can set you free. What He requires from you is time, trust, and cooperation. Be tenacious and patient, child of God! If you fall, don’t listen to the accusations and jeers of the evil one. Get back up and walk with God again. How many times? Until you’re free.

    However long and unforeseeable the road, God will lead.

    Lord God, I praise You with my whole heart because You said that whenever the wicked man forsakes his ways and the evil man his thoughts and turns to You, You will have mercy on him, for You will freely pardon (Isaiah 55:7). Thank You, my God, that no matter how I’ve been enslaved, You can set me free (Romans 6:19).

    Help me, Lord, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that in all things You work for the good to those who love You, who have been called according to Your purpose (Romans 8:28). Please help me see the condition in that promise! You are not obligated to work all things together for good for those who neither love You nor are called according to Your purpose. You obligate Yourself to that awesome promise only when I offer You my aching heart and commit myself and my suffering to Your good purposes. If I do, You promise to do more with my life than I could ever conceive. And I know that strongholds are not exempt from this list. As hard as it may be to comprehend, You can and will work this terrible challenge for good – if I will cooperate with You and see myself as one called according to Your purpose.

    Lord God, lift me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. Set my feet on a rock and give me a firm place to stand. Put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to my God! “Blessed is the one who makes the Lord his trust.” (Psalm 40:2-4) O Lord, like David, help me to rejoice in Your strength and say to You, “How great is my joy in the victories You give!” Father, please grant me the desire of my heart — to be free from this addiction — and do not withhold the request of my lips (Psalm 21:1-2, 5). Through the victories You give, may Christ Jesus’ glory be great!

    Dearest God, no matter what I once was, I have been washed, I have been justified, and I have been sanctified in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus and by the Holy Spirit of my God (1 Corinthians 6:11). For this I thank You. I am so thankful that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, You did by sending Your own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering for me (Romans 8:1-3). And since You do not condemn me, I have no right or place to condemn myself. Please keep me and not let me get caught up in a defeating cycle of self-condemnation.

    O Lord God, please forgive me for my self-loathing. Help me to praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know this full well (Psalm 139:14).

    Lord God, help me not to give the devil any opportunity to control me. I have too long given the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27). Please help me to stop offering him so many opportunities to bring defeat into my life. Your plan for me is victory. I will trust in You.

    I confess to You, my God and Father, that I am overwhelmed by the task ahead, But I am thankful that You have authority over all things. Heaven is Your throne and earth is Your footstool (Matthew 5:34-35). Therefore anything over my head is under Your feet.