Walking With a Loved One Through Addictionনমুনা

As we’ve explored the exodus story together over the past few days, I hope you’ve found wisdom and encouragement for your own journey through the wilderness. Today, as we reach the end of this plan, we shift our focus beyond the wilderness to our ultimate destination.

In the darkness of addiction, and the two steps forward, one step back, experience of recovery, it’s easy to lose hope. However, in the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, distant but getting closer, we are reminded that in Christ there is hope – living hope! – for all who are impacted by addiction.

Hope is the active ingredient – the caffeine in the coffee – of recovery. And there is hope in addiction. Hope for healing. Hope for wholeness. Hope for freedom, restoration, a fresh start, and a different ending. Recovery is possible.

Almost one in ten adults in the United States has resolved a substance abuse problem. Some got there without any help beyond that offered by family and friends. The majority found freedom with the support of a blend of services, including rehabs, outpatient programs, medication, and mutual-help groups such as Narcotics Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, and Celebrate Recovery. This is a remarkable story of hope! In fact, it represents 22.35 million unique stories of hope – living proofs that recovery is possible.

As you walk with a loved one through addiction, one day at a time, let the good news of the Gospel encourage you today.

To the person enslaved by elements of their own self, to desires and habits that have taken on a life of their own, the Gospel is the good news that the living God can transform them from the inside out.

To the person who feels ashamed, empty, and alone, it’s the good news that the living God can free them with his pardon, soothe them with his peace, and animate them with his joy.

To the person who feels impotent and powerless, it is the good news that the living God wants to fill them with his Spirit and fortify them with his strength.

To the person who feels isolated – maybe even utterly abandoned – it’s the good news that there is a people (the church) among whom God’s loving presence rests.

To the person who tragically ends their life still in the grip of addiction, it’s the good news that though addiction may have won in this life, the victory of Christ guarantees total freedom in the life to come. Ultimate hope in addiction looks beyond today’s horizons in the wilderness to the return of Christ, the consummation of His kingdom, and the first sunrise in the true promised land.

To continue learning how to walk with a loved one through addiction, check out Hope in Addiction: Understanding and Helping Those Caught in its Grip by Andy Partington