I’m a new Christian (20 days)
Lenno, I've noticed that you've made quite a few prayer posts and I'm not belittling that fact. I'll be keeping you in my prayers. It's good to be this determined and zealous for the Lord, and humble enough to ask for prayers, so I commend you on that: but I just wanted to say some things if you'd bear with me. Because while there's power in prayer, I think perhaps you need a little more than
just prayer this time.
Repentance and growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord is a
lifelong process. Be gentle with yourself. We're human and we all have to overcome. Becoming a Christian doesn't mean God waves a magic wand and suddenly we're perfect. Christians have to:
- Overcome Satan
- Overcome the World
- Overcome Ourselves
I have a laundry list of faults for myself. I get irritable easily and am quick tempered. I have trouble expressing myself in words verbally or by inflection so even if I don't mean to sound nasty, it can come off that way. And with my reputation of being irritable, I'm not offered the benefit of the doubt too often.
I've been working on this for a while, and looking back over the last fifteen years, I can see that I have made improvement--not as much as I would like, but I have rekindled friendships that were broken because of my attitudes and those relationships are getting stronger day-by-day. But if I look back over the last twenty days, I don't see any improvement.
I don't think keeping count of your Christian age: 17 days; 19 days; 20 days, is helpful nor fruitful. You can't judge your growth over such a short time period. That's like an individual going on a diet for 20 days and upset because they haven't lost any weight yet because they still like eating cake.
Everything takes time. "In patience possess ye your souls"; "he who endures to the end, shall be saved" - Luke 21:19 & Matthew 24:13
Be patient with yourself.
As for drinking alcohol and needing the skills to cope without it, have you looked up the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step Point? Their 12 step point is good, not just for alcoholics but any form of addiction or overcoming. Looks like you've accomplished
at least the first three steps, but seems like you accomplished even further, to step 7.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Make a plan for overcoming [all things]. Writing down goals and reviewing them daily has been proven to work. So if writing is within your personality, perhaps sit down with pen and paper and list
how you want to overcome these things and what your end goal looks like. For example:
Quit Drinking - Goals
- Get to the root cause of why I use drinking to cope.
- Change my driving habits so I don't pass by Liquor Outlet Stores
- Avoid situations where there's alcohol
- Save up the money I would have spent on alcohol and spend it on healthier foods or habits / give money I would have spent on alcohol to my church
And so on. Going to church once a week is wonderful; but when we're trying to overcome Satan, the World and Ourselves, we need
daily study, daily prayer, especially when we are infants in the word.
Read Luke 8:11-15
If your life is becoming unbearable, weed out from it as much as possible, so that your field is free to bear much fruit in the Word of God.
Do a deep personal search and ask yourself tough questions. An example of tough questions might be:
- Do I need to switch professions?
- Are there people in my life who are a bad influence who I need to get away from?
- Do I need to seek professional treatment for mental or physical illness that are hindering my growth?
- Am I in a bad neighborhood? Do I need to relocate?
- Do I read too much news; is it affecting my mood?
- Should I consider bankruptcy [if debt is involved]
And so on and so on. Obviously those are examples and may not be applicable to your situation.
Perhaps my long babbling post is stating the obvious and you're already applying yourself to these things, if so, forgive me. I'll be praying for you; you
will find the strength and you
will acquire the skills to cope and overcome. But remember:
skills are not talents. Skills are refined over lifelong use. A skilled carpenter became skilled through continuous work. Skills for overcoming and coping have to be refined through continuous use.
So do be gentle with yourself, but don't quit posting, either. We're your loving brothers and sisters in Christ and we're here to pray for you and help you.
