Overcoming Bad Habits and Addictions — Part 9
To be completely free of all bad habits and addictions, along with the cravings that keep you bound to them, you must be born again. It is pointless to try to use willpower to overcome bad habits and addictions without being born again because before you are born again, your nature is to sin. Your whole being is prone to sin, as Jesus said to those who opposed Him,
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.”—John 8:44 (KJV)
Before you are born again, you may have temporary success and manage to stop your addictive behavior for short periods of time, but the cravings are still there, and eventually they can overpower you and pull you back in to slavery to those old habits.
When you are born again, you become God’s child. You have a new father and a new nature that comes from your Father God. You exchange your old nature that was prone to lust and sin for a new nature that is completely free of lust and sin. The old habits that were part of the old nature are gone along with the cravings that held you bound to them. You are free! You are completely free because that old nature is no longer a part of you. It is no longer who you are. You are a new person, free from bad habits, addictions, and all of their cravings.
“For neither is circumcision anything [of any importance], nor uncircumcision, but [only] a new creation [which is the result of a new birth—a spiritual transformation—a new nature in Christ Jesus].”—Galatians 6:15 (AMP)
“The devil has been sinning since the beginning. Anyone who continues to sin belongs to the devil. The Son of God came for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s work.
“When God makes someone his child, that person does not go on sinning. The new life God gave that person stays in him. So he is not able to go on sinning, because he has become a child of God. So we can see who God’s children are and who the devil’s children are. Those who do not do what is right are not children of God. And anyone who does not love his brother is not a child of God.”—1 John 3:8-10 (ICB)
“If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.”—1 John 2:29 (NIV)
“We are sure that God’s children do not keep on sinning. God’s own Son protects them, and the devil cannot harm them. We are certain that we come from God and that the rest of the world is under the power of the devil.”—1 John 5:18-19 (CEV)
When you are born again, you are freed from that old nature that was held captive to the lusts and cravings that made you a slave to them. Those lusts and cravings were not from God. They were part of your old nature. When you are born of God, your old nature is dead. It is no longer alive in you. It has no influence over you. Its power over you is finished. Now you only have the nature of your Father God. None of those old lusts and cravings exist in the new person that you are now.
“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”—1 John 2:16-17 (ESV)
To Become Born Again
Becoming born again is so simple that a child can experience it. God made this profound experience simple on purpose. God does not want to exclude anyone. He wants everyone to experience all that He has for them, including freedom from all bad habits, addictions, and their cravings.
“God wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth.”—1 Timothy 2:4 (ERV)
Becoming born again is not something that you can make happen. It is something that God does for you. He will do this for you when you believe in Him and call on Him to make you His child.
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”—Acts 2:21 (NIV)
If you are ready to become born again, then you can call on God with a simple prayer. It is a very serious thing, but it is not complicated. You must believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died for you and rose again from the dead, and He is alive today with His Father God. Declare with your mouth, out loud, that Jesus Christ is Lord, and you will be born again. You may not feel anything, but you will be a completely new person. Your old person that was bound by habits, cravings, and addictions will be dead. You will be free! You will begin your new life in Jesus Christ, completely free from all that held your old self captive.
This is how the Apostle Paul described it:
“Say with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord.’ Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Then you will be saved. With your heart you believe and are made right with God. With your mouth you say what you believe. And so you are saved. Scripture says, ‘The one who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ (Isaiah 28:16) There is no difference between those who are Jews and those who are not. The same Lord is Lord of all. He richly blesses everyone who calls on him. Scripture says, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Joel 2:32)”—Romans 10:9-13 (NIRV)
God knows you better than you know yourself, so you can be yourself with Him and pray in your own words.
If you like, you can use this prayer as a guide:
“Dear God, I understand that I am a sinner. I ask you to forgive me for everything that I have done wrong. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that He took my place and paid for everything that I did wrong. I believe that He died for me and rose again from the dead. Right now, I declare that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. I ask you to make me your child. Make me born again. Fill me with Your Spirit and guide me through life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. I ask all of this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer sincerely, believing that Jesus rose from the dead and that Jesus is Lord today, then you have been born again.
“Everyone who believes (adheres to, trusts, and relies on the fact) that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) is a born-again child of God.”—1 John 5:1 (AMPC)
Believe the Truth
You are a completely new person. The old person who was held captive to bad habits, cravings, and addictions is dead. The life that you live from now on is completely free of those old habits and cravings.
That doesn’t mean that your life from now on will be easy, but your battles will be different. The main battles that you will face from now on will be against lies. Lies will enter your thoughts and try to tell you that you are not really born again, that you are not really free. If you believe these lies, they can pull you right back into your old habits and addictions even though your old person is dead.
Your battles now are in your thoughts. In order to remain free from all bad habits, addictions, and cravings, you must believe only the truth of your new life in Jesus Christ. This truth is found in the Bible. The Bible must become your only source of truth. If anything enters your thoughts that contradicts the truths written in the Bible, those contradictory thoughts must be rejected immediately and completely.
Your new life is based on what you believe. As Jesus said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.” (Matthew 9:29 NIV)
Another Bible version says it this way, “You will have what your faith expects!” (Matthew 9:29 TPT)
And another says, “It will happen to you just as you believed.” (Matthew 9:29 NIRV)
In order to experience the full benefits of being born again, you must believe that they are true for you in your life. If you believe that you are a new person who is completely free of all bad habits, addictions, and the cravings that drove them, then it will be true for you. This will be your experience! But if you believe something else, then you may experience something else, and you may miss out on the benefits of being a completely new person in Jesus Christ.
It all depends on what you allow into your thoughts and what you believe. As the Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (NKJV). You must believe the truth and only allow the truth into your thoughts. Otherwise your life will be something less that it could be.
You don’t control your thoughts by trying to get rid of wrong thinking. That is not effective. It actually works against you because it causes you to focus on the wrong ideas as you try to remove them from your thoughts. When you focus on lies and wrong ideas, then your thoughts are filled with those lies and wrong ideas, and that actually causes them to strengthen their hold on you.
Let your thoughts be saturated with truth, and then there will be no room for wrong thoughts. Focusing on truth will cause the lies and wrong thoughts to be removed, along with any effects they might have had on you.
Truth is found in the words of God written in the Bible. The Bible says that:
“Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!”—2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMPC)
As you focus your thoughts on the truth in this verse, meditate on it, not allowing anything into your thoughts that would contradict this truth, it will become part of you. You will live this truth. You will become a walking example of this truth.
Another Bible version says it this way:
“If anyone belongs to Christ, then he is made new. The old things have gone; everything is made new!”—2 Corinthians 5:17 (ICB)
Sometimes, thinking about the truth of a Bible verse in a different wording may help to make it real for you.
Another version states it like this:
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”—2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
Regardless of which Bible version(s) resonates with you most, this is* your truth now! *This is who you are now. You cannot afford to lose any of the benefits of becoming a new person by allowing any thoughts to tell you something different. Whatever you believe will become true for you! If you focus your thoughts on the truth of being a completely new person that is totally free from the old person with all of its habits, addictions, and cravings, then it will become true for you!
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”—1 John 5:4-5 (NLT)
Here is more truth about you. Believe it! It is true now! As you believe it, it will become true in your life. You will experience this on a daily basis. You will live this truth!
“He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. He set us free through the Son and forgave our sins.”—Colossians 1:13-14 (CEB)
“We used to be stupid, disobedient, and foolish, as well as slaves of all sorts of desires and pleasures. We were evil and jealous. Everyone hated us, and we hated everyone. God our Savior showed us how good and kind he is. He saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things that we have done. God washed us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave us new birth and a fresh beginning.”—Titus 3:3-5 (CEV)
