Lent 2025 – 10 Years Free – Prayer for Freedom from Substance Abuse – Purity 1613
Purity 1613 03/22/2025 Purity 1613 Audio Podcast
Purity 1613 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun shining in a blue sky over the clouds, snow-covered farmlands, and the blacktop surface of Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I captured what was one of the first instances of snow of the season that was Winter 2024-2025, back on November 29th, 2024.
Well, It’s Saturday and it is the second official day of Spring 2025, and I am rejoicing! While I don’t know whether we will have any March Lion blizzards, or April or May snow surprises in the days and weeks ahead, I do know that I saw some new life greenery among the dead grass and left behind harvest remnants during my afternoon walk along Waite Road Yesterday and that tells me that Spring has come! From here on out, every day will become greener, and no matter whether we see snow again or not, “It is finished” as far as Winter is concerned. Now I realize that in upstate NY – Winter may not be “done” but I assure you it is finished – meaning whatever desperate counter attacks or attempts it makes to reestablish itself in the weeks ahead, Winter is finished – scoreboard.
Besides the signs of green on the ground, and the progression of the days on the calendar, I am also celebrating because I am without a doubt officially 10 years, clean and sober – TODAY! I even confirmed the date by looking back at the blog to see if I had written about it (https://mt4christ.com/2016/03/25/new-life-one-year-sober/) and am sharing a link to the post that proves that on March 22, 2015 – “it was finished” for me when it comes to alcohol and drugs. The Lord has set me free and who the Son sets free is FREE INDEED!
As much as we have liberty as Christians to drink alcoholic beverages, the Bible is clear about drunkenness being a sinful bondage that Lord never wants us to experience.
Just this morning, in Bible Study I read Proverbs 23:29-35 (NLT), which shares the pains of the alcoholic. The text reads:
29 Who has anguish? Who has sorrow?
Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining?
Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns,
trying out new drinks.
31 Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,
how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.
32 For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;
it stings like a viper.
33 You will see hallucinations,
and you will say crazy things.
34 You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea,
clinging to a swaying mast.
35 And you will say, “They hit me, but I didn’t feel it.
I didn’t even know it when they beat me up.
When will I wake up
so I can look for another drink?”
This is an accurate depiction to the life of anguish, pain, and confusion that alcoholics live with and if the negative consequences of this depiction isn’t enough to discourage drunkenness, let me share some a couple of other “drunken” Bible verses” that put me on the road to recovery and that path of Christian Discipleship.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 tells us: 9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. [1]
And Galatians 5:19-25 says:
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.[2]
These passages in the Bible along with the Holy Spirit in me convicted my heart and drove me to repentance and even though getting clean and sober was not easy, the Lord was faithful to help me to overcome.
Unlike many in recovery circles, I don’t declare myself as an “alcoholic”, or as “someone in long-term recovery” or as someone who struggles or used to struggle with drugs and alcohol, I identify myself as a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, or simply as a child of God who was bought with a price, adopted into God’s royal family, and set free by grace alone and faith alone, in Christ alone.
It is the season of Lent and let me encourage anyone out there who hears this message that with God’s help freedom is possible. Substance abuse has no power other than what we choose to give to it and when we trust in Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Higher Power there is nothing that we can’t break free from.
I have been sharing Dr. Neil Anderson’s the Steps to Freedom in Christ on the blog for Lent and so today of all days, on my 10 year anniversary of freedom from drugs and alcohol, I am sharing the Steps’ prayer for freedom over Substance Abuse. You can download a free JPEG of this prayer on the blog today: Substance Abuse Prayer JPEG , to share on social media. It is also available as a PDF: Substance Abuse Prayer PDF for your quiet time.
Dr. Neil Anderson helps us pray:
I pray that this message and this prayer will help to set the captives free. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Loving and Serving Others.
Romans 12:20–21 (NIV) “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Today’s verses are the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the twentieth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Loving and Serving Others.
20. Love your enemies and those who persecute you.
Today’s Bible verse encourages us to “kill our enemy with kindness”, meaning if we show compassionate care for our enemy the Holy Spirit will use our good works to cause of fire of conviction to be heaped upon their souls, which prayerfully lead them to no longer be our enemy and could possibly bring them into God’s kingdom.
Recovery ministry is not an easy ministry. The broken lives of the people you minister to may cause them to lash out and hurt the very hands that our trying to help them to be set free.
I recall a time when one man going through Celebrate Freedom was extremely troubled and troubling to my mentor, Pastor Bob Costello, to the point where Bob went to a trusted friend to complain and lament over all the trouble this man was causing in Bob’s life when Bob took an active role in trying to help him. The friend suggested these verses as a remedy to Bob’s problem and Bob was encouraged and even though these verses didn’t change this troubled man’s “enemy tactics” immediately, they did give Bob the wisdom, strength, and compassion to help him and the other “hurt people who hurt people” he ministered to.
So do return evil with good. As the Lord Jesus did for us, we do for others.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 112
Always seek ways of doing good to one another and to all people.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:15
Not only must we find ways to do good to our fellow Christians, but also to unbelievers. This exhortation follows hard upon a prohibition of returning evil for evil. The operative word, of course, is “seek.” We are not only to do good when the occasion arises, but are to actively seek (figure out) ways of doing it. Taking the initiative in acts of thoughtfulness and kindness must characterize your life. If you are living only a responsive life, that is not enough. You must become proactive, conceiving and initiating courses of action aimed at securing the welfare of others. If the concept of initiating “ways of doing good” for others is foreign to your thinking, this verse ought to enlighten you. It’s time to give the notion some serious thought. Doing so may involve a paradigm shift of a major order. But if so, all the better. Give it some thought; but thinking isn’t enough either. Thought must be transformed into action. Why not begin today by making at least one small effort to obey this command?[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 120.
[1] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 1 Co 6:9–11.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Ga 5:19–25.
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