Addiction: How to Help Hurting PeopleSample

If you want to help hurting people, give them practical, powerful, simple steps to take.

Normally, the focus is on how to get someone to stop doing wrong behavior. We usually tell people to get an accountability partner and work hard each day to stop drinking, shopping, overeating, gambling, etc. This seems beneficial. But this has no power. This has no motivation.

Instead, we can help people live out who they were made to be. In Galatians, we read, “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Instead of telling someone to avoid their flesh impulses, what if we point them to take action that aligns with God’s design for their life? We can help people learn to walk in the spirit, instead of stopping them from walking in the flesh.

Romans 12:21 tells us to “Overcome evil with good.” We can guide the hurting person to do good, instead of avoiding bad. This can be of great benefit to a hurting person. When people use their lives to do good for others, they are walking out God’s design for their lives. When they are looking for ways to serve people, they are taking action that brings fulfillment.

As a minister of reconciliation, you can hold people accountable to thinking about others, instead of focusing on their behavior. For the person who is struggling with an addiction, or a destructive behavior, they are normally focused on that problem. They will tend to focus on stopping the wrong. As you hold them accountable for doing good things for others, you are helping them to stop thinking about themselves.

When people get an outward focus, they can begin to live with a vision that is far bigger than themself or their problem. Doing good for others will feed their spirit and allow God to use them. This momentum gives them a new focus and a greater reason to honestly face their problem.

As I work with people I look for any way to do the following:

1. Help them be connected to healthy people.
2. Help them find ways to volunteer with other people.
3. Help them find physical activities that provide some challenge and some fun.

Early on this journey, I shared part of my story. I was living in that prison cell. My heart wanted to help people, but I was unable to fix myself and free myself from that prison cell. I could not fix myself. I could not free myself. But Jesus created a pathway to freedom. Now, people like you and me, get to proclaim this freedom to broken people. Put your cape on my friend. The captives are waiting, and Jesus wants to use you.

Thanks for joining me on this short journey. There is certainly more to be discussed, but I hope this provided some perspective and encouragement.

Mark has put together a couple more resources for people who want to take steps to be free. They can be found at https://markdelaney.com/