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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!

For the past three years I have been Biblically counseling addicted men at a Christian rehabilitation center in Vermont. I see about ten men a week and have seen the ravages of addiction first hand. Addiction, and here I mean the addiction of all things, has taken hold of men in a powerfully evil way. Families have been torn apart, relationships destroyed, and men have sunk to lower levels of pain and hopelessness that brings them back to their addiction. The only hope has been Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Redemption.

Every man I have seen in the past three years have the same bad root running through them, they are unable to deal with the mental and physical pain that they have experienced through abuse, addicted parents and a childhood without God. It has been through Christ that they have new hearts and a hope for the future.

New hearts bring a new desire to serve Christ, but old emotions and the lingering shame and guilt always stands in the way of a new life. Consequences from the past holds them prisoner. My desire has been to point to Jesus, to Biblically guide them to the rejection of shame and guilt through Christ working in me.

My point in writing down these experiences is to help those who counsel the addicted, to begin to understand the journey that involves setbacks, tears and pain. When I started this I realized that I needed to be more intent on discovering the inward factors that brought about the addiction in the first place. The past is painful, it must be visited but ultimately left in the past.

²²To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 1 Cor. 9:22-23

This world is constantly groaning under the weight of sin (Rom. 8:22) we are people who have been sinned against and have sinned against others. Parents divorce, fathers leave their families, generations of addiction provide a fertile ground for children to begin the see addiction as the way out. There have been hundreds of different stories as to the cause of people’s addictions, but there is one thread that every man has said to me, a thread of emotional pain, helplessness and an ungodly way to deal with that. It has only been through God’s grace that these men have been able to see the hope that He brings, the hope that unlocks the chains that still try to hold them back.

These snippets of my experiences I’ll try to publish in the coming months. I have been helped greatly by many counselors including Ed Welch and others. Ed’s book “A Banquet in the Grave” has been very helpful. My prayer for others who counsel the addicted is that these posts will give some assistance.

Looking forward to sharing more as I can.

Soli Deo Gloria