Looking down on a big city at night: behind all of the bright lights, how many people are hurting, looking for answers, and wondering if anyone cares?
If you have come here looking for help, be encouraaged!
Sometimes I think we run into a solid brick wall so that we can see our need for God! Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, meaning those who sense their abject poverty in the area of spiritual things. He did not use the word for normal poverty, but the word that refers to a beggar who has absolutely nothing, reaching up a hand to receive help. That's how all of us are with God, if we are really honest. And that is our only starting place.
Please see my links to the "Four Spiritual Laws," and to Billy Graham. At Billly Graham's home page, you can easily navigate to subjects like "Believe," "Christian Living," "Bible Study," or do your own search. For example, a search of the term "addiction" brings up some very helpful links.
I think the heart of all addictions is really the same: Something brought us comfort, or a high, or an escape from stuff going on in our lives that seemed unbearable...and then that thing itself, far from fulfilling its promise to satisfy, becomes just one more huge burden on our backs, from which we cannot seem to escape.
At this point we need both God's help and human help. We need accountability partners. We need to know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. We need more than just some religious "experience," we need the life-changing power of God's Word (the Bible) to be in the process of transforming our minds each and every day. We need church, even though it's full of imperfect people just like us. We need prayer, because God is never far away when we sincerely call to Him.
It has been said that each of us is created with a God-shaped vacuum that (obviously) only God Himself can fill. We have tried filling it with all kinds of other junk. However, God is standing, with arms open wide, waiting for us to come back to Him. Jesus told this story to illustrate that:
A lost son
Of course, the father in this story is a picture of God, who loves us so deeply and wants us back in spite of how we have gone astray. How could the father in this story have seen the son's returning when he was still so far away, except that he had been watching that road day after day after day?
I also highly recommend the following books: Beth Moore, Breaking Free; and Max Lucado, Next Door Savior. It's important to do reading that may not be specifically aimed at the problem; for example, Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life is a great help no matter where you are in your walk with God, whether you are just thinking about starting that walk, or have been walking with God for many years. Another extremely important work is Fatal Distractions by Ed Young. Another Breaking Free by Russell Willingham gives real help for sexual addiction. Charles Stanley's When the Enemy Strikes is for anyone willing to accept help for the real underlying spiritual warfare we all go through. Check your Christian book store, or Christian Book Distributors
