God Knows Us So Well

 If you are struggling with addiction but you are ready to give up the struggle and seek the help you need there is available the most powerful help you will ever encounter if you take the help available and use it to your fullest. I am talking about the help of God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and now you want Him to set you free from the bondage of addiction He is more than willing to be the strength you need to, once and for all, end your bondage to addiction, He is the tower of refuge and strength you need and without His help you won’t be able to find the freedom you seek.  But I believe what makes this (freedom from addiction) successful for anyone is that you must want and seek after a deep intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. If you haven’t received Him as your Savior and Lord I share how to do that at the top of the blog page, just be sincere when you pray and I promise your life will change.

     What it means to desire and seek a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus is to want to know Him and to be known by Him in the deepest most meaningful way your spirit, soul and body could ever be known or know another. Simply put, we have a Savior who wants nothing more than to know us and for us to know Him, and for us to have a living, growing relationship with Him.   

     Your relationship with Jesus can only grow stronger as you realize that if He saved you from the judgment of sin and eternity without God He can certainly save you from the horrors of addiction. When you know Jesus well and you let Him know you then you can go to Him with anything and trust Him to give you the strength you need when temptation and the urge to give in or give up comes. Talk to Him like you would a friend, He is one who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24) and tell Him about all that troubles you and tell Him about all that brings you joy. He already knows all about you but He wants you to willingly bring (let) Him into every area of your life; especially, as He creates a new one for you, a new life living for His purpose.   

God knows us so well. Jesus said in Matthew 10:30 (NIV),”…Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Do we think He knows the number of hairs on our head and that is the extent of not only what He knows but that it is all He wants to know about us? I don’t think so. Sometimes I am astounded at just how much we actually limit God.  He is not a God who sits in heaven counting the hairs on our head because He’s good with numbers and has nothing better to do. There are a lot of references in the Old Testament in which God protected people and it was a sign of that protection if during battle or a trial not a hair on their head fell to the ground (1 Samuel 14:45, 1 Kings 1:52). If God cares about our hair this much just think how much more He cares about and wants to know our heart.

God knows the things about you that you don’t even know and He longs to help you know yourself, the person He meant for you to be and the person He is going to create as you get to know Him and let Him get to know you.  

If you really want to know and be known by Him it will take a strong sense of “knowing” that you have been forgiven for all of your sins (past, present and future), a lot of people struggle because they carry their shame of the past and therefore they also (unknowingly) negate their precious gift of forgiveness and what Jesus did. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” Romans 8:1 (NKJV), this is a scripture that must be known and deeply not just on the surface, you must know that Jesus did not die for your sins to leave you with the shame of them. When He was nailed to the cross for your sins He also took upon Him your shame and it was also nailed to the cross and it has been conquered and He remembers your sin no more and if there is no (remembrance of) sin there is nothing to carry shame for.

Sometimes while God is healing and mending our brokenness we may still struggle with low self-esteem especially when we are taking the first steps to change the path we were on and now pursue the path God has marked for us. And until we acquire some godly characteristics and get some good deeds under our belt we may have a hard time seeing ourselves as a new creation in Christ, but don’t get discouraged because the enemy likes to play on self-pity and self-image problems—don’t let him use your temporary situation against you. Soon you will see the things God has in store for you and they will not only take the place of the things of the past but they will give you a sense of purpose and it won’t be the meaningless purpose of chasing addictions.  No, it will be purpose in the kingdom of God once you are there (treasures stored up in heaven), and it will also be God’s purpose for your days left here on earth. I can tell you from experience of serving both purposes in my life (no purpose, His purpose) there is NOTHING that compares to living a life that God has laid out for you.  Think about it, if you are obedient to what He wants for you and it is truly His plan for your life there can be nothing short of success for you because God’s plans never fail!  

Remember that we all need God and no one is better than another in God’s eyes and we are fearfully and wonderfully made so when you are struggling with “self” issues study the beautiful verses in the 139^th Psalm which David wrote and he begins this Psalm with “O Lord, You have searched me and known me” and he ends this Psalm in verses 23,24 with “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties…and lead me in the way everlasting” David had a desire to know and be known by God. This is my very favorite Psalm and it has literally helped me heal from “self” issues and doubts about what God’s actual (not perceived) thoughts are towards me. This is a Psalm in which David writes (NIV vs. 17, 18), “How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!” When you read this Psalm you can see that we were not just some after thought of God’s we were intentionally created and He knew us from inside the womb.

He is the relationship you have longed for and He is the one who will know you and show you that He knows you. Some people are put off by God knowing them because they think it only refers to Him knowing all that is not good or right about them but that isn’t how or what He wants to know about you, those are the things He has chosen to remember no more! When you have taken something (anything and everything) to Him in prayer and sought Him in joy and His peace and laid it at His throne and trusted Him and then you get your answer, it is then that you understand just how deeply He knows and loves you. When you have been in a crisis and you have had no other choice but to call out and surrender it all to God and He honored that by giving you such peace in your heart and spirit that you had no doubt it was the supernatural power of God, it is then that you become aware that He knows you and He knows exactly what you need and when you need it.

 Our God knows us whether we let Him know us or not (John 2:24,25, Heb.4:13, Matt.10:26) but I encourage you to let the God who created the very being that you are know you and love you and create the creation you were meant to be. Take hold of another verse David wrote in Psalm 40:5 (NKJV) which says, “Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You…if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” If His thoughts toward (about) us are so many they can’t be numbered, He knows and cares about us deeper than we can ever imagine. I don’t know about you but I want to have a relationship with a God whose thoughts about me are so many they cannot be numbered!

 I didn’t know I had things about me that could entertain little more than a few thoughts, but God’s thoughts toward me are so many they can’t be numbered—wow! Yes, even I want to know that me.

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His Ways Are Not Our Ways...Hallelujah!

     God’s ways are not our ways, but now that we are new creations in Him we are learning His ways and we are learning to follow His ways because we now know they are best for us and we now trust our life, our sobriety and our freedom from addiction to Him. 

     We cannot maintain our freedom from addictions without Jesus as the center of our new life. We need all the help we can get from Him and there is unlimited help, we just need to tap into it every day all day long.

     I read or heard once from Joyce Meyer Ministries that even a godly thought directed toward God is considered prayer in the heart of God—I just love that and I firmly believe it. God already knows our hearts inside and out, and He even knows our heart better than we do, so if we are directing our thoughts and desires toward Him and His kingdom we will be in constant communication or communion with Him. If we are in communion with Him we can have the constant help we need to stay free from the things that will harm us and keep us from our Savior. 

     Remember, you are not just working on sobriety; you are building your testimony. I consider it your story of how you and God came to be and the path you are now taking once He turned you to the “light” direction.  God is an amazing God who uses us in ways that we may never even know or understand.  You are now a child of God and He has plans for you and it is to use what you have gone through so don’t lose hope when you are feeling like your life has no purpose. Your life now has God Almighty’s Purpose, and He is just preparing you for what is to come and you want to be ready as He brings this new purpose into your life.  

     When He says His ways are not our ways He means it (Isaiah 55: 8-9), but He isn’t some sort of unapproachable God who tells us His ways are different and higher and His thoughts are different and higher. He tells us this so that we don’t try to trust our own ways as they are futile when it comes to His ways. Besides, haven’t we proven that, by trusting our own ways to the point of our own demise?

      He does tell us that we can reason or talk with Him and Him with us, “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” Isaiah1:18 (NKJV). God wants us to know that we can go to Him about anything and everything in our life, and He wants us to know we can trust Him with everything.

     Let’s talk about trust as it relates to the past and now your new life in Christ. 

      When you lived in the mire of addiction you kept trusting in and counting on your so called “friends”, but addicts don’t have friends they have addiction companions—because misery loves company—and that’s it! There is no such thing as trust in that world and anyone who has lived in it knows that I’m speaking truth.

      BUT GOD, came into your life and now you can really know what it is to embrace trust for once in your life. You can trust the one who is a friend like you’ve never had before. He tells us in Proverbs 18:24 both the NKJV and the NIV version are impactful and relevant to what we’re talking about: NKJV, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” And in the NIV, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”  His word even says in Micah 7:5 (NIV), “Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips.”  He is not the kind of friend who says “I will be there, I promise”, but then they are nowhere to be found when you really need them! No, He never leaves or forsakes us and He doesn’t just say it, He means it!

     God is not “out to get us” as some would think and He deals with us in kindness and compassion—even if we don’t think He is being kind and loving, He knows what is coming in our life, so we need to trust Him. 

     I used to think that God was not very patient and of course not very compassionate either, but His word tells us otherwise and now that I am pursuing an intimate relationship with Him I know His word and His ways enough to know that God is kind and very compassionate and loves to deal with us in that way.

     “…Because His compassions fail not…they are new every morning...” and, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”  And there are more supporting scriptures—some of them can be found in: Lamentations 3: 22, 23, 25, 32, and 33 (NKJV).

      We can trust Jesus as our true friend and God the Father as our loving Father, not like some father’s in the world who might have been absent, abusive and or neglectful.

     God the Father wants us to know that He loves us and because of that love He will correct and chasten us, just as any loving father would. He is The- Father- of- all- father’s and He never means us harm, and He can only correct us toward what is good and right for us. Our Father in heaven can never lead us wrong or astray and He will never inflict undue or unnecessary pain or harm on us, He just won’t, it is NOT His nature.

     Remember we talked before about not licking our wounds and not catering to our pain, but instead let God cater to it. Let’s look at some of the ways He does this—first of all we have the privilege of casting all our care upon Him, His word tells us this in 1 Peter 5:7 and Psalm 55:22, God wants us to cast our cares upon Him and let Him bring about the answers to the situations we face each day. This includes giving us strength when we need it to overcome temptation and stand strong in this new freedom from addiction.

      He cares for us in our hurting and pain, it matters so much to Him that His word tells us that He not only hears and answers our prayers, but our prayers are saved up in heaven, “…the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders…each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people”, Revelation 5:8 (NIV). God also saves the tears we cry, “You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?” Psalm 56:8 (NKJV).  In Psalm 4:8, He keeps us safe when we sleep at night and He gives us His peace.

      When we speak of His peace there is nothing to compare it to—by that I mean it isn’t earthly so nothing on earth can compare to it.  But He does tell us this about His peace, John 14:27 New Life Version says this, (“Jesus Gives His Followers Peace”) “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give peace to you as the world gives...”  He even suffered physical pain for our peace as it tells us in Isaiah 53:5. Also, in Philippians 4:7 Paul tells us that God’s peace surpasses all understanding, and all through His word He is referred to as the God of Peace!

      This is not the kind of peace that we have ever experienced before and we should cherish it as such. Hold on to His peace and never let it go. Let His peace keep you and strengthen you during tempting times, during trying times, during those times when you know you will make it, but those around you aren’t quite convinced yet and because of that you are feeling discouraged.

     With the peace of God our Father and His own peace Jesus gave us, we are completely equipped and prepared to journey with Jesus down this path of no more addictions. We are now in pursuit of His plan for our life and that is a completely new path, it has twists and turns that we are not used to. But we can get used to it and that’s what this new journey is all about—learning His ways. Don’t give up, soon enough those who weren’t quite convinced that you are a new creation will be completely and thoroughly in awe of what our Great God has done in you and they are going to want it too!  So keep going because there is joy to come and a harvest to reap and a brand new life to live—and Jesus is the closest, stick it out when things get tough friend, you have ever had or ever will have.

     Trust and follow His ways and they will take you down the path that leads to Him and His eternal purpose and the place that is being prepared for you in heaven.

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Practical Steps To Help You Live In Freedom From Addiction

  

  Jesus is the ultimate addiction!  

I have experienced being supernaturally touched by God and I can tell you that His touch is better than any drug you’ll ever do or any high you’ll ever experience.  But we don’t all get supernaturally touched by God, in the sense that we can physically feel it, and we don’t serve Him with, or because of our “feelings”.  However, don’t lose hope, there is still God’s supernatural power to deliver you and set you free from any bondage that keeps you from Him and His will for your life.

                         This process will work:   

                         1. If and because you want it to help you…...

                         2. Because you have the supernatural power of                                 God...

                                          
                         3. If you believe in the power of prayer and                                       God’s Word...

     Without these elements I don’t give freedom from addiction much hope, but if you will engage sincerely and “addictively” to these you can have success, growth, and best of all freedom in your future. 1. You have to want this process to work. 2. You have to have God’s supernatural power to help you. 3. You must believe in the power of prayer and God’s word. Prayer will direct your actions, and your actions will direct your prayers, and His word will be your guide and instruction book. Read and study His word and you will find the wisdom, the strength and the courage to stay on this path of freedom from addiction.
     Here are some in the moment, right now steps you can do- they will help you if you get into "a habit" of using them.

1.     To help with this, begin to visualize your life free from your addictions, see it in your mind’s eye, entertain these thoughts often, think about and visualize what great and godly things will replace the addictions. Do this ALL the time, as often as you crave to go to the other addictions, do this instead.  It may seem menial--but I know it works!

2.    You must believe that you can change and that it is God’s will that you change, and make sure to give Him all the glory and honor for your new life. Also, remember that God is more powerful than any drug or addiction, and He is NOT shocked by anything you are bound in—He died for your addictions. He died to set you free from anything that keeps you from Him!

3.    When you are craving your addictions, get somewhere quiet and private (if possible) and pray, pray and pray some more—begin to ask Him to strengthen you, ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and thank Him that He is taking the desire away and filling you with the things of God and His Kingdom.  Now, begin to fill your mind and thoughts with these new godly cravings and desires—Keep praying and meditating on these things until the craving passes—It Will! When the craving comes again, pray again, meditate and think on these godly things until they are the things you crave the most. When you begin to see results from your prayers, you will begin to crave the things which bring results: Godly thoughts, prayers and desires that are godly and free from the addictions. These are the things which will and should replace the old addictions. Be faithful to these things and God will fill you with brand new godly desires and cravings. Desires that are eternal and matter to God and His Kingdom. WOW! Doesn’t that seem like something that is worth giving up your destructive wants and desires for?

          These new desires will hold a place in God’s heart and His Kingdom and they will have eternal purpose! When these new godly desires are sought after and fulfilled they will bring a sense of fulfillment that no earthly thing, addiction, or want could ever compare to, and the best part, there is NO destruction when habitually going to them over and over again!

    “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, ALL things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV)

    You are NOT once an addict ALWAYS an addict! If we believe this then we can have no hope in our Savior and His power to deliver us from evil/addiction and set us free. But we do have hope! We have the only real hope there is, we have the power of God Almighty and the blood of Jesus. This is not the false hope the world gives, this is the hope of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

    “If God Is For Us Who Can Be Against Us?” (Romans 8:31 NKJV) There is nothing more powerful than His power to set you free. If He wants us free (of course, He does) and we want freedom too, then nothing can hold us back.

    Embrace this new life free from addictions, in your thoughts and actions, even if at first it seems awkward. Surround yourself with positive, godly people who have also been changed by the power of God and soon it will not be awkward at all. It will be the way things are now that you are a new creation in Him!

    If anyone is “in Christ” he is a new creation. This means you must live “in Him”, you MUST embrace and engage this newly created life in Jesus in order to overcome the old cravings and desires. Live in freedom with Jesus and pursue your new life just as tenaciously as you did the old life and see how much  supernatural power you will have to overcome the old desires and way of living. Seek Him, His word and His ways. Fill your days with the things of God. He is your Refuge, your Tower of Strength, your Hiding Place, your Prince of Peace.

      He will never leave you at any time along this journey to freedom from addiction. NEVER!

    Hallelujah! He is a good and gracious God and He wants us free from the bondage of sin and addiction. He wants it for you even more than you do, so you do your part and He will do even more!    

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