Foundations of Counseling the Believing Addicted

In my counseling the addicted believers, it has been very important to first discover honestly how the hearts of these people were changed. Counseling non-believers requires a different approach of preaching God’s mercy and love through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Focusing on the reality of their situation and providing hope through the gospel provides a non-believer the only road through which they can finally see the end to their addiction and the way to lasting peace. The non-believer first must have a new heart, a heart that knows the desperate situation that God has brought them to, “the supposed bottom” of their lives where nothing seems good and all hope has been lost for reconciliation. In this aspect there is a first step to take with non-believers before bringing the steps they must climb out of their addiction, a change from despair to a life that is redeemed through Christ.

The believer presents some different issues. The heart is changed and these people now live in a state of “why”. The why is the question that needs to be answered through a Theologically based counseling. Knowing who God is and His attributes, becomes important in a first step approach. Is God all powerful? If He is why is this happening to me? These are some of the questions that have to be answered and taught when we counsel believers with addiction. The “why” is answered in Scripture from Genesis 45:4-8:

“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent you to preserve life. Fo the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be no plowing or harvest, And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Heath Lambert writes about this in his book, “A Theology of Biblical Counseling” Lambert says,“This is a fascinating text that affirms the work of God and men in the same action.” Lambert writes about the absolute need for a right understanding of God and His desires for man, and that all the trials and all the pain that are put upon us leads to God’s ultimate purpose for our lives, not for our own good, but for God’s purposes. It is this understanding that takes time for the believer to understand to focus and to absorb. I like to say that it is God’s plan A, no plan B or C, but only what He wants no matter the results of our own sin. Treating someone who is dealing with the wreckage of their life from the sin of addiction and reaffirming this is a hard concept for most. People want God to wipe away the consequences of sin and start without any resulting consequences. But in the story of Joseph the pain of selling their brother to slavers must have resonated with the brothers even though Joseph had explained about God’s purposes. The brothers had to deal with all thoughts of how sinful they were and how God used this sin to bring about a saving of their people. These are the conversations that need to be spoken in the counseling room. The all encompassing power of God over people’s lives is the key to beginning to come out of the grip of addiction. If we start counseling with this it lays the foundation for hope and reconciliation.

Theology is worshipping God, knowing who God is how ever present He is and how powerful He is. In speaking with people trapped in addiction the ever present voice in the room is God’s not mine. Understanding and thinking through these doctrines brings the addicted to a new place, a place where they can finally see the hope that Christ brings, a hope that tears away the false impressions they have of who God is and a proper way to guide them in the future.

We can learn much from those who have gone before us, those who dealt with the same issues we face today. One of these is John Owen an English Puritan (1616-1683) he dealt with the doctrine of sin in believers in his book “Indwelling Sin in Believers” because his original work is difficult to read I will quote his work from the abridged version from the Banner of Truth Trust. Owen begins his book with Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Owen begins with Paul’s letter to the Romans describing the way we all struggle with our sin daily and the need to see Jesus in the midst of our own sin. Owen writes about the law of sin,

“It always remains in the soul. It is never absent. The apostle twice says, ‘It dwells in me.’ If it (sin) was only an occasional visitor, it might be kept out and dealt with. But the soul is its home. Whatever you are doing , the law of sin is always there. Men rarely consider what a dangerous companion is always at home with them.”

Serious words here from John Owen and we should be always on guard to acknowledge this. Those who are addicted have lost the reality of this. Sin has taken hold of them, and they believe the subtle lies that are whispering to them.

In the next writing I will expose the sinful nature of addiction the way it constantly torments the addicted leading them to surrender to the lies that have chained them to a miserable existence.

Soli Deo Gloria!