You
Struggle With Addiction
Psalm 18:28-36
28 You, O LORD, keep
my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance
against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.
30 As for God, his way is
perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take
refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the LORD ? And who is the Rock except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with
strength and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet
of a deer; he
enables me to stand on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You give me your shield of
victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.
36 You broaden the path beneath
me, so that my ankles do not turn.
Proverbs 23:29-35
29 Who has woe? Who
has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who
has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who linger over wine, who
go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
31 Do not gaze at wine when it is
red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly!
32 In the end it bites like a
snake and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange
sights and your mind imagine confusing things.
34 You will be like one sleeping
on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging.
35 "They hit me," you
will say, "but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will
I wake up so I can find another drink?"
Romans 6:1-23
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on
sinning so that grace may increase? 2By
no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him
like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his
resurrection. 6For we know
that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from
sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him. 9For
we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death
no longer has mastery over him. 10The
death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count
yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do
not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but
rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to
life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your
master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't
you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you
are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads
to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to
be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you
were entrusted. 18You have
been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms
because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the
parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so
now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin,
you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the
things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the
result is eternal life. 23For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
Romans 12:1-2- Living
Sacrifices
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 Corinthians
6:12-20
12"Everything is permissible for
me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for
me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food for the stomach and the stomach for
food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual
immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead,
and he will raise us also. 15Do
you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take
the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with
a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become
one flesh." 17But he who unites
himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality.
All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually
sins against his own body. 19Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God
with your body.
Philippians3:17
17Join with others in
following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to
the pattern we gave you.
Philippians 4:1
1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and
long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear
friends!