Proverbs 26:11, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.” (NLT)
I’m sure you’ve heard the definition of insanity; “doing things the same way and expecting different results.” I can remember many years ago when I first started trying to stop drinking and drugging. I thought if I would exercise, it would help me stop. So I would go buy an expensive pair of shoes to run in and nothing would change. I bought a nice bike to ride and add to my exercise regimen…that didn’t work. I can remember having my 1984 Celica GTS painted red…thinking that would make me change. I can remember asking God to relieve me of my bad habits but I would always tie contingencies and convenants to those prayers; “God help me stop using but don’t let the DEA find out or my parents or the state pharmacy board etc…”
All of these actions always led me right back to my “vomit” as they never worked.
Expecting external forces to fix a problem that begins from an internal misalignment of thinking is like pouring sawdust on vomit and expecting everything to be allright. Remember the days when someone would hurl “lunch” in school and the janitor would pour that sawdust crap on it and it would smell 10x worse? The smell did not go away until the vomit was removed. Bad habits and addictions do not go away until whatever is causing them is removed and for 99.999999% of us it is our thinking that needs to be removed and replaced with new thinking.
A quick recipe for removing your vomit instead of just pouring sawdust on it:
1. Surrender the habit daily to God and ask him to remove it. Begin reading scripture, especially New Testament scripture and hear and feel what Jesus wants you to be. It is the devil that wants us to continue to play in our vomit. Jesus wants us to be free from our vomit but he will not do the action steps for us, but he will certainly bring the right people into our lives to help us.
2. Pray for the willingness to seek help from those who’ve conquered their “vomit” as well as professional counselors.
3. Seek help from those above…remember step 2 involves praying for only the willingness.
4. Pray for the willingness to listen to those you are seeking help from.
5. Listen to those you are seeking help from.
6. Pray for the willingness to do what you are told by those you are seeking help from.
7. Do what you are told by those you are seeking help from…hopefully they will suggest utilizing The 12 Steps in conquering this thinking problem/bad habit/addiction.
8. Break your days into hours and make up your mind to stay away from your “vomit” an hour at a time and then expand the time period as you gain strength and wisdom on how to conquer your habit.
Doing these steps may not break you of your habit overnight but it will at least make the “vomit” look, feel and smell much worse…sort of like that sawdust crap, and eventually your thinking will change and you will break free from it and remove it for good…one day at a time.
P.E.A.C.E.
