((Romans 7:18) I know nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desires to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.)

This is of course is the first step toward recovery, and without a true heart revelation of these truths, we will just spend more years of relapsing, and just keep inventing and trying new ways of managing our addictions. Perhaps you have switched addictions, or you have tried to cut down or limit your use, but then you just ended up back to where you first started, even more frustrated, discouraged and depressed than before. Don't worry, if you haven't hit rock bottom yet, you will be hugging the rock soon enough. Things have a way of getting very out of control and unmanageable around the end of a serious addiction. Addiction makes you think that it's giving you a lot, but in actuality, it's always taking much more than it gives, and it is very hard to appreciate that fact until you've been free from the addiction for a while, and truly see the loss.

"We admitted we were powerless over addiction due to our separation from God". Well this can be a toughie for a couple of reasons. First because we tend to think that we are smarter than everyone else (including God) when we are deep in addiction, and we really don't seem to understand why people don't just get off our backs, and trust us to handle it. Also, asking God for help can be hard because of our stubborn pride in wanting to beat the addiction ourselves so that we can show everyone including ourselves that we beat the addiction all by ourselves. We also want to show everyone that they were wrong about us because we feel very guilty and shameful about all the terrible things that we did during our addiction. "Why should God want to help me after all the rotten things that I've done? He probably hates me anyway". God doesn't hate you and He's not mad at you, He's just waiting for you to come to the end of yourself, so that He can jump in and help you. You see, God can only work in a human’s life with the permission of that human, or through the prayers of someone else for that person. You must be willing to not only get out of the driver’s seat and let God drive, but you must trust where He takes you as well. God gave us freedom to choose; He could have easily made robots to serve Him, but He wanted His creation to choose Him out of genuine need, and a desire to know and love Him.

"That our lives had become unmanageable." Well "unmanageable" can seem like a pretty relative term when you are trapped in an addiction. We live in such fear and terror that if we don't have the addiction in our life then our life fall apart, but it is the addiction that is actually destroying everything. Actually we hang onto addictions much like an insecure child clings to a pacifier; it is a physical, controllable, security habit meant to alleviate fear and/or life-discomfort. Addictions are really just idols we use to fill the rightful place of God, but idols never deliver the real thing that you seek, they are fools gold and worth less than nothing. You will never quench your thirst drinking polluted water. I have heard a definition of addiction once, it was, "Addiction is the repeated use of a substance or practice of a habit, despite repeated negative consequences." If you have ever been nagged to death over your addiction, lost your job, family, reputation, finances, health, possessions, looks, home, car, kids, freedom, or self-respect because of an addiction, then you will soon realize that you cannot live life successfully, and practice that addiction at the same time. In the end, you will have nothing, and like the Prodigal Son in the bible, you will realize that you must either admit defeat and get help, or very possibly die.

But also like the Prodigal Son, you'll notice that the Father welcomed him back with open arms. God doesn't care what you've done; He just cares about you. If you don't believe you are powerless over your addiction and that your life is unmanageable because of it, then just ask God to show you whether this is true, or not. You have accumulated years of buried pain and fear, and you have tried being your own God, but it didn't work. Your ship is either sinking now, or it has sunk already, and only God Himself can re-float your shipwrecked life. Man can only do so much, which usually really isn't very much. If you don't want to quit, then ask God to help you to want, to want to quit (no typo there). God knows where you are at right now with your addiction, and He knows that you feel that you just can't live without it. You can untie God's hands today by just asking Him to help you to understand the truth about your problem with addiction, and by giving Him complete control. He will answer that prayer every time, guaranteed, if you mean business.

I remember a cartoon from my youth that featured Tooter the turtle (who lived in a shoebox in the woods) with his wise friend, Mr. Wizard. Tooter always wanted to go somewhere else, or to be someone else, which Mr. Wizard would reluctantly grant with a swipe of his magic wand. Then Tooter would invariably get into more trouble than he could handle and he would yell, "Help me, Mr. Wizard! I don't want to be here anymore!" Whereupon Mr. Wizard would then pull him out of the trouble with an incantation, and pluck Tooter from his near-death experience, and Tooter would be home again safe and greatly relieved. We usually also need our addiction to get us so over our head, that we finally unconditionally cry out to God for His help. God is a gentleman, and He won't force you to take His help; He will hold His hand out for you to grab onto though. Trying to beat an addiction without God's help is fairly impossible, plus you need God to heal you emotionally so that you can live happy and free, and not be left in a miserable "dry drunk" condition. Trust God today to take control of your life and help you right where you are at today.

Here is a prayer to pray if you need it.

"God, I'm stuck in this addiction, and I feel trapped. I don't like what has happened to my life because of this addiction I have clung to. Lord I feel that I need this addiction to feel secure and in control, but I also know that only You alone are truly capable of managing my life, and satisfying and protecting me. God, I ask that you would help me to trust in someone other than myself, and I ask that you would help me to understand just how powerless I really am over this addiction, and how my life has gotten completely out of control, because of it. I offer myself to you now Lord, to help me, and to change me as you see fit. Thank you for helping right now God. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."

I have also included the story of the Prodigal Son from the bible below just in case you are not familiar with it, or if you want to read it over again. Try to remember, that the Holy Spirit will lead you through the steps if you ask Him for His help, He knows exactly what you need, and precisely how to help you.