Struggling with Addiction? | 5 Scripture Passages to Help You Fight the Battle

Struggling with addiction? I understand. I’ve been there myself.

Recovery is an ongoing process. Once I began recovery, I made a conscious decision every day to live clean and sober that day. Recovery didn’t take the first few times I tried it. I had over a year in recovery one time when I decided to go back out and live the high life. That nearly killed me. I’m fortunate that I didn’t do any irreparable harm to anyone else while out on my bender. Even though I wanted to quit, I couldn’t seem to stop. But I kept trying.

Maybe you are going through something similar today. You’ve got an addiction that is killing you but you can’t seem to stop. Perhaps, you’re in recovery and struggling to stay clean. I want to encourage you to not give up the fight. It is a battle, no doubt. A battle for your life.

I found peace through God. Once I did that, my war with addiction changed. It was as if the Universe declared a cease-fire. That was over 20 years ago. But, I don’t like to count recovery in years. I prefer counting by the day. Specifically, today. We aren’t promised tomorrow. Recovery is a daily decision that I make.

Below you will find 5 scripture passages to help you fight the battle of addiction. If you find yourself struggling with addiction, know there is hope. You don’t have to continue living a life of bondage.

God is for you, not against you.

Blessings,

The Devotional Guy™

Psalm 18:28-36 (NIV)

You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great. You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.

Proverbs 23:29-35

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has contentions? Who has complaining?

Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes?

Those who linger long over wine,

Those who go to taste mixed wine.

Do not look on the wine when it is red,

When it sparkles in the cup,

When it goes down smoothly;

At the last it bites like a serpent

And stings like a viper.

Your eyes will see strange things

And your mind will utter perverse things.

And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea,

Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.

“They struck me, but I did not become ill;

They beat me, but I did not know it.

When shall I awake?

I will seek another drink.”

Romans 6:1-14

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

1 Corinthians 6:12-13 The Message (MSG)

Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.

You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!