Overcoming Addictions Through the Power of the Holy Spirit

Living with addictions

Wednesday Health Check: Friends, I trust you are well and are having a wonderful week so far.

Today, I would like us to look at the addictions that affect our lives. I have observed that we all have some form of addiction that most of us are not even aware, because they do not fall under the category of illegal addiction, and yet they negatively impact our psychological and physical lives.

I looked up for a definition of the term addiction, and I got this one: Addiction is a psychological and physical inability to stop consuming a chemical, drug, activity, or substance, even though it is causing psychological, and physical harm. The truth is addiction is affecting all of us; even our young generation is suffering from this problem. 

It comes in all forms, either in social media, pills, sports, work, television programs, food, alcohol, etc.

What are the things that have power and control over your life? What are the activities that control the success of your day, besides the Lord Jesus?

I had a lot of addictions in my life that were controlling my life. I struggled to have a productive day unless I had a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Before I could engage in my prayer, I needed a caffeine boost, and I would continue to drink coffee throughout the day. The sad part was that it was negatively affecting my health.

I also had a long-term weight problem. The first time I went on a weight loss journey, I got introduced; to a slimming mixture; as a result, I got accustomed to losing weight through pills and fade diets. So, I would lose weight while on pills; but as soon as I stopped drinking all those pills, I would gain it all over again. And this happened for the half part of my life, till I took the time to seek the Lord in prayer, to help me with my weight loss journey.

I remember the turning point in my life; was when I watched a movie t Son of God, and I noted that while Joseph and Mary journeyed back to Bethlehem, they did not carry so much food, and Mary was pregnant at that time. And I remembered that not so long ago, I had taken my children to the beach, and I had carried so much food, just for the few hours that we were going to spend at the beach.

We had a cooler box full of drinks, we had a picnic basket full of snacks, and on our way to the beach, we bought takeaways. We were there from 10h00 till 16h00, and we ate everything that we brought.

That really concerned me, and I realize we had a food addiction, and our lifestyle; was already affecting my health, and in the end, my daughters would be affected as well. I remember I prayed about it and took time to repent and change my behavior. The Holy Spirit led me to another church where they were preaching about how we as, Christians, focus on spiritual things, and neglect our bodies. How, we as Christians are the leaders in all the chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, because we only focus on the spirit and do not take time to take care of our physical health.

Power of the Holy Spirit

This preacher went as far as saying, while we are eating a meal, we are already thinking about our next meal. And that was true for my family. I went back home, and I prayed about this for over a week, asking the Lord to empower me so I can change my lifestyle.

As the Holy Spirit was convicting, I saw clearly, that I did not put God first in my life; my coffee addiction was the priority and then God. That order was not the right order of God. I decided to put God first in everything in my life, even in my lifestyle. So, I took time to pray about it and set a date of when I was going to start a journey of a lifestyle change.

I invited the Holy Spirit to lead me and guide me and couch me on the entire journey. I was surprised to learn in the morning of the set date when I woke, I did not have any desire to start my day with a cup of coffee, and I did not have so much appetite, Because I had already given the control to the Holy Spirit.

For the first time, I lived my life without addiction. I thought I would experience cold turkey, but surprisingly I did not. I continued every day to ask the Holy Spirit to influence my decisions when I was making food, and I ate when I was only hungry.

In the end, I lost weight over 25 kg, and I was even set free from chronic medication. My family saw how God impacted my life, and the entire family joined me, and we changed our attitude towards food. We took the time to recognized other forms of addictions that were present in our lives, such as television shows; that we could not live without, that was stealing our time in the presence of God. We took time to observe any other obsessions, which were taking more priority than God. It was not an overnight journey, but every day we committed to Christ, and even today, we still commit to Christ. Some days, I relapsed, but I would talk to my stomach and command it to settle down, and I would tell my appetite to settle down. I would remind myself every day, Christ is my God, and I would not allow anything to become a god in my life.

Steps to Overcoming Addictions:

• Recognize that you have an addiction problem.
• Be willing to let God help you with this problem.
• Take time to repent and allow the Holy Spirit to convict you because addictions are a sin.
• If you are on chronic medication, do not stop taking your medications, I stopped taking my medication after three months since I had been on a lifestyle change.
• Understand that the Holy Spirit is our helper, our comforter, and our healer. Speak in other tongues, and soak yourself in the word, to avail the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Set a date to start this journey of lifestyle change and be committed.
• On the day, Start your day in prayer
• When you feel weak, talk to the Holy Spirit, ask Him to strengthen you, and to give you the power to continue.
• Don’t be a dog eats its vomit when God sets you free do not go back to your old life.

Friends, I trust this will help you. Thank you so much for reading. God bless you.