Positive Addictions

Many activities can become positive addictions, but they will all differ in terms of how much they help you stay clean permanently. Let's look at 5 activities: Playing the guitar, reading, vigorous exercise, teaching at church, and teaching others how to quit addictions.

Things like playing music, reading, and exercising rank high as distraction activities because they tend to take our minds to a new place. But things like teaching at church and helping others have several other benefits. Firstly, people who are teaching have to develop more expertise and more skills. Secondly, the Holy Spirit empowers those who are helping others. Because they need to be empowered.

But whichever activity you choose you will know if it becomes a positive addiction when the following occur. You start to do it daily, you love it, and now you are almost compelled to do this good activity.

Positive addictions lower temptation. If in a few months you have developed a bunch of them – you will be on the road to real success.

Today, start the positive addiction of praying about your God-given purpose. Then follow up that prayer with trying to do something to help somebody. This may be the very positive addiction you need to start in order to quit for good.
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Priscilla Shirer wrote the following:

"When Paul talks about spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6, prayer is the seventh piece of armor. It activates all of the rest of the spiritual armor," she said. "When we refuse to pray, it's like having a refrigerator without plugging it in. Prayer is the divinely authorized mechanism God has given us to tap into His power. Without prayer, we'll be ineffective in spiritual warfare. But with it, we will be victorious."

The Truth About Spiritual Warfare

We see our struggles with habits in non-spiritual terms. So we often like non-spiritual solutions. But she notes that:

"Everything that occurs in the visible, physical world is directly connected to the wrestling match being waged in the invisible, spiritual world. The effects of the war going on in the unseen world reveal themselves in our strained and damaged relationships, emotional instability, mental fatigue, physical exhaustion and many other areas of life. Many of us feel pinned down by anger, unforgiveness, pride, comparisons, insecurity, discord, fear. . . and the list goes on. But the overarching, primary nemesis behind all these outcomes is the Devil himself."

The Enemy's Strategy
"He desires to lead you into sin so that fellowship is broken between you and God — this way you'll be disconnected from the Source of true power and strength.

The evil temptations that appeal to your specific desires and happen to show up when you are most vulnerable are not accidental. They are his deceptive tactics (and that of his evil entourage), specifically designed, timed and personalized in hopes that you fall prey to his demon ploy and miss out on experiencing an abundant life in Christ," she said.

Why It's Important to Pray
If we drink too much, watch risky shows too much, or get lazy too often, satan will attack us at these moments of weakness. When we often pray about non-lust-related issues as well as lust-related issues, we start to gain strength over them, and that will start to give satan less opportunity to temp us.

How to Pray: Just Talk with God
She continues: "Your prayer needs to be authentic and heartfelt. There is no need for ten-dollar words and poetic prose. Just be raw, frank, and real with God," she said. "I believe prayer works. Prayer has been more effective in my life than human solutions. Time, and time and time again, I've seen that lasting change comes only through prayer. When I pray — release it into His hands — God accomplishes what I can't do in my own strength.

Prayer is how we see heaven invade earth. It's what opens up the floodgates for God to come down and be involved in our everyday circumstances."

Priscilla has a lot of wisdom. Positive addictions will eventually force out negative addictions. Today, add a block of daily prayer as a great positive addiction.

When you fight satan with prayer and scripture you have a good thing. When you fight his temptations with a block of prayer over specific scripture you have a winning strategy.

Finally, almost everyone is weaker in one area from the last paragraph. Today... resolve to change your life by making it a strength.

 

Romans 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Consider praying every hour:

“Father, hate me hate evil.”

Over the last year, I have suggested praying, “Father, help me to turn aggressively from sin,” or “Father, help me to turn from lust” several times. But when I suggest praying these prayers every hour, I know that it is hard to make this a habit.

Second, I prayed prayers like these thousands of times before I quit for good. But, when I would still fall I never considered my new habit to be in error. I just still knew that I was missing something. The key point is... praying to turn from lust is one of the top 5 habits we can acquire to quit.

The next key point is when we pray the prayer. Yes, every hour, but, most importantly, we pray it when we turn on a TV show (or go somewhere) that may be risky. Pray this prayer often, and sincerely at these key times. Prayer prepares us for temptation, then we turn to key verses from the Word when we are under severe temptation.

Tips for Forming Habits

We need a cue to remind us to pray. Like an alarm every hour. When I start to watch TV, that is a cue for me. A location or a note can be a cue.

Inspire yourself by writing down the number of days you plan to pray this way. Keep track of your success daily in a notebook. Place the notebook in a place where you always will see it.

Consider praying for 10 or 15 minutes about how to acquire this habit, both today and tomorrow.

Last, many will still do it for a day or two and totally forget again. Don't be upset when you think of it 4 days later. Instead, paste 20 sticky notes everywhere with a big T on them to remind you to do it like clockwork.

Yes, it is that important. Daniel ran from lust automatically because he had formed the habit of running from lust. This is a habit you can learn.

For the full article https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/positive-addictions.321682/

 

Today I am praying the prayer of Jabez often. The prayer is:

“Lord, please expand my borders, and bless me indeed.”

Why did Jabez pray that? My guess is because he had experienced God's blessing and thought it was great. He had seen God's hand on his life and the results gave him joy.

Second, you need something special in your life. Something that makes you finally say, “This is the top of the pyramid. This is the key I have been looking for. This is why I will quit.”

When we are determined to expand our borders (find our God-given purpose), the Holy Spirit is right there with us. Right now if your life is good, having the Holy Spirit closer makes it even better. But if life is hard, if relationships are hard, if everything stinks... having the Holy Spirit closer makes life wayyyyyyy better.

Today, consider writing your own three versions of this prayer. Something like:

“Father, help me to turn from lust, please expand my borders, and bless me indeed.”

“Father, show me the destruction lust causes me, please expand my borders, and bless me indeed.”

“Father, show me how to live so that we can have a great relationship, please expand my borders, and bless me indeed.”

Jesus wants a close special relationship with you. Consider praying these prayers often because when you are in full pursuit of your purpose, you will have no more need for any of satan's short-term deceptions.