Substance Abuse
The problem that you are having with the addiction that you are struggling with is not as much an external problem (physical) as it is an internal problem (thinking and feelings). The Bible uses three terms interchangeably to describe your inner person (your thinking and feelings). These terms are heart, mind, and soul. These terms describe whom you are inside, how you think and how you feel. How you think and feel work together to form your will, or what you decide to do.
If you can change how you think and feel, then you will change what you do. Examine the following flow chart to see how this works.
The process of changing how we think and feel is what God does in us when we know him as our personal Saviour and grow as a Christian. God has given us some tools to use that will help us with that process. This book will give you two of these tools to help you as you begin the task of changing how you think and feel.
The first of these tools is found in 2 Corinthians 10:3-7, and we call it the three C’s.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6, “3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
The first C is Casting down imaginations. The time to deal with the problem is when the thought is first introduced. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This verse teaches us that God’s Word can divide between things that we often cannot, such as the point at which a simple thought in our mind becomes the intent to commit the act. Often we have the wrong concept that we can indulge thinking about sin without acting on it. However as we already learned, as a man thinketh in his heart so is he! If we are going to get victory over the addictions that control us, we must first get control over our thinking.
The easiest point to defeat our lust for our addiction is when the thought first comes into our mind. We must at the very inception of the thought cast it down when it is still in the imagination stage, before it has time to develop into a mature thought. The way to do this is to stop the thought and mentally say, I will not indulge this thought, I am not going to allow it place in my thinking process, and I reject it.
