Addiction and Pain // Pain In Your Brain [Part 3 Of 5]

“Jesus existed before anything was made, and now everything finds completion in him.” Colossians 1:17 (TPT)

ADDICTIONS:  

1. Are an desire for more.

“They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and their hardness of heart. Having lost all sensitivity, they have abandoned themselves to vice, committing every kind of impurity in growing excess.” Ephesians 4:18-19 (NCB)

“I can’t explain my actions. Here’s why: I am not able to do the things I want; and at the same time, I do the things I despise…I am absolutely miserable!?” Romans 7:15 (Voice)

2. Are a of a legit need. 

“Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; But a man of understanding will draw it out..” Proverbs 20:5 (ASV)

“Jesus answered, ‘If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.’” John 4:10 (Message)

“Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:17

3. Involves a approach.  

“We pray that your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—will be kept safe and be without wrong when our Lord Jesus Christ comes.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ICB)

HOW TO HELP THE ADDICT

1. Be them.

“Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.”  Luke 15:21 (NLT)

“…If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

2. Give them a statement of impact. 

God: “My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken…I hurt with the hurt of my people. I mourn and am overcome with grief. If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears I would weep day and night.” Jer. 8:18, 21–9:1 (NLT)

Jesus: “”Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37

3. Meet them with at their point of shame. 

“But 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.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

4. Treat them with a of structure. 

““But if your brother wrongs you, go and have it out with him at once—just between the two of you. If he will listen to you, you have won him back as your brother. But if he will not listen to you, take one or two others with you so that everything that is said may have the support of two or three witnesses. And if he still won’t pay any attention, tell the matter to the church. And if he won’t even listen to the church then he must be to you just like a pagan—or a tax-collector! Matt 18:15-17 (Phillips)

[Also: 1 Corinthians 5:5]

5. Be a , not the source. 

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” John 10:10 (NLT)

“…be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.” Romans 12:2 (LB)