|
|
Need Encouragement?
|
Battling with addiction
|
|
I'm a gambling addict for so long and I really wanted this to end. I am blessed with 4 beautiful smart and talented kids and I have a dreamt of their great future ahead, I know it wont be possible if I dont stop gambling. I listened to the bible everyday but the temptation is so strong that I keep on coming back to the dark. I believe that our Lord can cleansed my impurities but as of now, I'm struggling to find the way out of this whole thing. My mother doesn't trust me anymore and It hurt me than it hurt her. My emotions are in deep turmoil. I want to be happy, I want to live a normal life. Please pray for me, I know with God's anything is possible.
|
|
Leslie Aranda 11/04/2011 07:40 |
|
| |
Ray
|
11/04/2011 08:35 |
You are not alone. I think there is a way out. I don't know what it is exactly, you have to walk it out a bit on your own because it is not exactly the same for everyone. I'll write some things here that might help to bring focus, but realize it it up to you to fight it out, to see what it means for you:
Paul wasn't joking, in Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
There's no other way. You can do all the "sin management" you want, but you will never live until you die to yourself. In other words, when the gambling pull comes, realize that you can surrender you life of gambling so that others can live (the kids). It's what Jesus did for us.
Recognize you are in a war. The enemy wants you dead. I love this scene in "Band of Brothers," a film about WWII/D-Day. The "hope" spoken of here is that thing inside you that draws you to gambling, not the good stuff of life. It is the hope that the soldier can climb in a hole to survive, a denial of who he really is, a denial of the big picture. It's not hope at all. It is surrender: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKYJLfWqTBY
You are in a war, not a game. Your choices matter to the war effort. When the gambling pull comes, call it what it is. Death, maybe death for you kids. Maybe it will change things for you. Your call.
Listen to the "Fight for Life." It is in the the 2011 DAB podcasts in July. It is what you are doing and will give you some tools to work with. As long as you are just trying to manage sin, you loose, as does the kingdom.
Don't do this alone. Find someone to walk with and be totally honest with them. Someone who will lift you up.
Oh, yeah, pray without ceasing. Start now. I'm praying with you, Leslie.
|
| |
Calico
|
11/04/2011 09:15 |
Leslie,
"Become equipped," instead of "wondering if you can be equipped." There is a way to do this: http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/courses/topics/gambling/.
Enroll, undertake the apprenticeship, and let Jesus mentor you through the how-to of it all: "...learn from Me..." (Matt. 11:29a).
Praying with you, Leslie,
Tom
|
| |
Davidwayne Lackey
|
11/04/2011 22:58 |
Praying for you Leslie.
|
| |
Leslie Aranda
|
11/05/2011 06:11 |
Thank you Ray, Calico and David for the help and the prayers. God has ways of showing everything will be okay by believing.
I was so depress for almost three weeks and for the first time I have never felt so down after the feeling of rejection and condemnation from my mother. As a single mother, my mom helped me raise my children morally and financially. We are leaving far apart from each other, my mom in California, Im in the UK and my children are in the Philippines, the feeling sorrow were endless because we are in different geographical locations. For the nth time I promised my mother that I will stop the foolish vice and ended up broken her heart again and again. She was so angry, but all the hurt words that came from her mouth I have to swallow because its true.
Yesterday after posting on this forum, my mom send me words of encouragement on my facebook page. I felt the unexplainable happiness and healing after reading her message, because she knew that Im trying my best to change. Now its time for me to move on and act conscientiously. I will continue to pray for my total healing.
Again from the bottom of my heart, I thank you because of you, Ray, Calico and David, God has changed my sorrow to happiness when people who care are praying with/for me too.
|
| |
Ray
|
11/05/2011 07:17 |
'I will continue to pray for my total healing.'
Perfect! Your loving Father will lead you there. He loves you so much. Focus on His love no matter what gets tossed in your face.
|
| |
Calico
|
11/05/2011 09:16 |
Hello Leslie,
It is wonderful to have these brothers and sisters praying with you and praying for you. This is as it should be; a foundation thing that is part of the normative life of one who is in Christ.
That said, it is to be pointed out that there are now things that God will leave in your hands; things that His Spirit has enabled you to do, and that you CAN do.
There is an old Messianic Jewish prayer that goes "Pray as if it all depends on the Lord, and work as if it all depends on you." And this is likely the turning-point at which you are found with the gambling, Leslie: resolving to just not do it again "but this time really meaning it" will be of only partial value, because there is no prior training in place for dealing with in-the-moment struggles. Instead, old patterns of thinking, which have been formed over a long period of time, will be defaulted to, because no new Spirit-led pattern of thinking has been developed: "Do not be conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2; NAS).
This new way of thinking is needed, Leslie. And that is why I referred you to the Setting Captives Free website above, to make use of the means of the "Higher Stakes" resource. It is a 60 journey of biblical equipping, during.which you will have a mentor who will walk alongside to help you develop what God has ALREADY given you power to do. As you make headway through the journey, your mentor will pray, guide, and listen to you, as the Spirit continues to strengthen and move you. You'll develop an entirely new way of dealing with the things that are brought to light by Him, and as the Spirit searches you out you will gain a new recognition of who you are in Christ.
Undertake the apprenticeship, Leslie. It is entirely within your reach to be able to do so.
Praying with you still,
Tom
|
| |
Leslie Aranda
|
11/05/2011 11:28 |
Dear Tom,
I enrolled yesterday after I learned about the site. I am working on it. Thanks again
Leslie
|
| |
Calico
|
11/05/2011 13:31 |
;-)
|
| |
Ray
|
11/05/2011 16:14 |
'as the Spirit searches you out you will gain a new recognition of who you are in Christ.'
From one religious camp we're told that what God wants is obedience, or sacrifice, or adherence to the right doctrines, or morality. Those are the answers offered by conservative churches. The more therapeutic churches suggest that no, God is after our contentment, or happiness, or self-actualization, or something else along those lines. He is concerned about all these things, of course, but they are not his primary concern. What he is after is us-our laughter, our tears, our dreams, our fears, our heart of hearts. Remember his lament in Isaiah, that though his people were performing all their duties, "their hearts are far from me" (29:13 italics added). How few of us truly believe this. We've never been wanted for our heart, our truest self, not really, not for long. The thought that God wants our heart seems too good to be true.
(The Sacred Romance , 90, 91 )
|
| |
Helga
|
11/06/2011 04:43 |
Praying for you Leslie......
|
|
