Loving Those Caught in Addiction, with Andy Partington

Do you or someone you love struggle with addiction? If so, you know how difficult and lonely the journey to freedom can be. Find hope and help in this episode of Grounded with guest Andy Partington. He shares how the gospel speaks to addiction and how you can respond with compassion.

Original Episode: 

Understanding and Helping Those Caught in Addiction, with Andy Partington

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOoPVGqtVA4

Website: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/podcast/grounded/understanding-and-helping-those-caught-in-addictio/

Connect with Andy

Instagram: @andypartington 
Twitter: @partington_andy
Website: https://novocommunities.org/

Episode Notes

• “Tippy’s Teaching Me” season of The Deep Well with Erin Davis.
• Hope in Addiction book by Andy Partington.
• Happily Even After book by Dannah Gresh.
• “Happily Even After, with Bob and Dannah Gresh” podcast season.
• Shop Revive Our Hearts’ Summer Bible Study Sale.

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Andy Partington: If you battled with a difficult habit and you've seen sin gradually increase its grip on your life, you know what it is to deal with an addiction. This is all of us dealing with the same underlying needs that drive us into the arms of addictive behaviors, addictive substances, but also the same kind of brain function that makes us incredibly vulnerable to these habits. You can't do this alone, because you need people with you in the trenches. With others and with God, you can do it.

Portia Collins: What do you think of when you hear the word "addiction"? Hello Grounded sister. I'm Portia Collins. We're sharing our favorites from almost four years worth of episodes. This one was chosen by our tech team—specifically, Michael. You guys never see Michael, but he's always faithfully working behind the scenes. Hey, Michael.

This episode has helped so many people, and we know it will be helpful for you to. Too many times we don't land in biblical places when it comes to our addictions—whether it be food or spending or porn or work. So, let's just dive right into this practical conversation with Erin Davis and Dannah Gresh when we consider what we thought about when the topic of addiction came up.  

Dannah Gresh: I'll tell ya, Erin Davis, I do think of the word “hope” when I think about addiction. And so, I'm ready to pass out dollops of it today, because I really do think you know someone or maybe you are someone who needs some hope on the topic of addiction. It's really a huge problem in the body of Christ. 

According to several credible sources, people in the Church are struggling. 

Erin: That’s an important distinction.

Dannah: This is not an us and them problem. This is in the Church. We're just trying to clean up our own house. Let me run a couple of stats by you: 32 percent of people in the Church self-identify as porn addicts; 27 percent say gambling is their medication of choice. I'm concerned about that, just because of all the stuff I see about the NFL and gaming—making it so normal, this casual gambling. Here's the number: 8 to 24 percent. Now, that's kind of a wide gap, I know. But those are people in the church who say they have a drinking problem. We're not talking about coffee, although maybe we should talk about that too. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Dannah: Talking about alcohol, there are 6 percent who are struggling with prescription drugs. I want to say it one more time, “This is not casual use.” These are not people who are sometimes falling into a pattern of using those things. These are people who self-declare that they have an addictive nature to their sin problem. 

But look me in the eyes. I'm going to look a little closer at you if you're on videocast. If you're in those stats, you are not without hope . . . and hope has a name. It's Jesus. We're here to help you find Him today or maybe rediscover Him in a new way.

Erin: Yeah. I'm not a social scientist, but I'm guessing those numbers are low. Because one thing that addicts . . . Maybe we shouldn't have been using that label. But people who struggle with addiction either, a) they don't like to own up to it, or b) don't always recognize that they are in an addictive pattern. So those numbers were alarming. And, are they even accurate? Is there more to the story?

And so, I do know those numbers are alarming. When I think of 32 percent of Christians struggling with porn addiction, I'm rightfully alarmed. When I think of a quarter of those in the church are struggling with gambling, I'm alarmed. 

But I think we also can be kind of numb to them. And so, this isn't a statistic episode. We want to grab your heart. Rather, we want the Holy Spirit to grab your heart, because you either are someone who's addicted, or you know someone who's addicted. 

Maybe I'd swap out know for love. Because I'm just talking about your neighbor or somebody that you are acquainted with, somebody you love who's addicted. I am sure that if you're listening to the sound of my voice, you are connected to someone who just cannot seem to get out of the grip of something. The want to is not the problem. They want to, and that thing is controlling their life. 

So, this is a hard conversation, but I think it can be a hopeful conversation. Dannah, do you have some experience here?

Dannah: I do. And when you say that, the numbers might not be right, because people might not be self-reporting correctly. One of the things that Bob and I have learned in our journey is that you don't really know you're an addict for a really long time. 

We've been pretty public in the last almost a year now that Bob has struggled with pornography addiction. I would say for a bunch of years, decade or so, he just thought he was like every other guy. He was struggling. Because it had become his normal, He didn't realize that he really was in the addictive category. 

And so there probably are a lot of people listening right now who don't realize. They might be thinking, But I have gotten to the place really where I'm willing to say, “This is unmanageable in my life”? I have the want to, but I don't have the know-how, the willpower, to get out of this rut.

We're calling out to you. 

Erin: There’s even the Monday morning learning cycle of, “I'm going to start again on Monday, and I'm gonna master this next week.” And so, you don't self-identify as an addict because you think, I’ve got it. I'm gonna be able to control it. And then that cycle can go on forever and ever. 

Dannah, I do want to talk about loneliness, because there's a woman listening that she genuinely is not somebody who's addicted. It's not that she is blind to her own addiction—I mean, coffee, food, approval.

Dannah: Yeah.

Erin: I mean, there's so many things. But talk to the one who loves the person and the addiction and the loneliness that can come with that.

Dannah: Yeah, it's so lonely. You feel like you're the only one in the world struggling. We want you to know you're not alone. If you need to put another face and a name and address with it, put mine there. I'm in the neighborhood right there with you. But we're going to lead you out of that hopeless place of loneliness and into the community of Jesus Christ where you are going to find hope today. So, stick around.

Erin: Yeah, we don't just commiserate here on Grounded. We don't just say, “Me, too.” We say, “Me, too. Now, let's look to Jesus.” So yeah, you're not alone. But we're gonna go to the right place together. 

Dannah: Right. Yeah.

Erin: In fact, in the newest season of The Deep Well, which is called “Tippy’s Teaching Me,” there's a whole episode on how to pray for your husband. We've heard from women all around the world about the impact of that episode. Dannah really beautifully walked through how she was praying for Bob as his sin patterns, addictive sin patterns, were being exposed. 

But I don't think it just applies to husbands. So if you haven't yet heard that season, let us invite you to check it out. It's on the Revive Our Hearts YouTube page, “Tippy’s Teaching Me.” I think it'll be another layer of hopefulness. It may be some action that you can follow up this episode. 

Dannah: Yeah. I want to say this: I know the term addiction can be so alarming. I was really resistant to it when Bob began to use the term to describe his battle with lust. 

I would say things in my head, “Isn't it really just a sin problem?” But what I noticed is that when he started to call it that, his battle shifted. He started winning. And when I began to redeem my understanding of addiction using both God's Word and science the battle shifted for me. I started to feel more helpful. I started to feel like I had tools in my hand. I hope to redeem your understanding of sin and addiction today when we get grounded into God's Word. Open your Bibles to John chapter 8. I'm going to show you what the brain of an addict looks like. I'm going to show you what God's Word says about that. 

So, if you usually listen to the podcast version, it might be worth joining us on YouTube for the videocast for just this episode.

Erin: Yeah, absolutely. I'm really eager to introduce you to our guest today. He was raised in a rehab facility. Yes, you heard that right. Andy Partington has seen the ugly side of addiction. 

But he also says it's possible to see addiction with two other words we love: “clarity and compassion.” 

I gotta say, I think only the Church can bring those two things to the table when it comes to addiction. He also says, “Yeah, there's some hope.” So, this is a very shareable episode. At a minimum, hit that share button that helps other people find Grounded. But I hope you'll do more than that. I hope the Holy Spirit will bring someone into your heart that needs the things that are going to be shared today. I hope that you will at least text them, let them know that you're thinking of them, praying for them, and that this might be something that God would use to give them that hope in the midst of what can be a really confusing and dark thing, which is addiction. 

23:37 - Grounded with God's People (with Andy Partington)

Erin: I am eager to introduce you to Andy. First of all, you're gonna love the way he talks. He's got a great accent. But he was raised in rehab, and he says the Church needs to know, and I agree, how to handle the growing addiction epidemic with hope and compassion. So, welcome to Grounded Andy.

Andy Partington: Hey, Erin, it's great to be with you.

Erin: Okay, you say you were raised in rehab? What does that mean? I've never heard that be in anyone's story before. So, tell us about your growing up years.

Andy: Back in the day, my parents were coming out of a really difficult season in their own lives. They ended up working with a drug and alcohol addiction treatment charity in the UK, a Ministry called Yellow Manna, which still going strong. Back in those days, the families of the staff members, many of them, lived on site. 

And so yeah, age three I moved into the rehab. I say I didn't leave until I was eighteen years of age. Some of them misunderstood that story. But yeah, I had the privilege, and it and it truly was a privilege, of growing up alongside men who were battling serious drug and alcohol addictions.

Erin: How do you think that shaped your perspective? I keep calling them addicts. Maybe you should tell me if that's the right way to describe them? That feels a little icky when I say it. But how did that shape your perspective on those who struggle with addiction?

Andy: Yeah, we can talk about people with a substance use disorder, but it's clumsy and clunky. And actually, within the community of those who are fighting for recovery, people will use the language of addict. 

How did it shape me? In all sorts of ways. I think it I got to know people who had severe addictions in their moment of recovery and the start of their recovery journey. And so, I think this concept of hope and addiction for me was the start point. I saw the person who was taking those first steps out of addiction. 

So, I learned that addiction, recovery from addictions is absolutely possible. But then, of course, as the years went by and I matured, I also saw what the process involved. I saw the struggles, and I saw the heartache of family and friends. I also always need to say I saw the power of community to give recovery its force—the power of Christ and the power of community.

Erin: Yeah, let's drill down there. We said it at the top of the episode, we're not framing this as an “us versus them.” That's very rarely a helpful way to frame anything. But also, this is in the Church. There are people who are genuine followers of Jesus, who love the Lord, love their Bibles, and are struggling with addiction. We gave some numbers. Can you put some faces or some stories with how addiction impacts God's people? 

Andy: Yeah, it's everywhere we turn, and I think we to differing degrees all have an experience of this challenge. You know, I think if you've battled with a difficult habit, and you've seen sin kind of gradually increase its grip on your life, you know what it is to deal with an addiction. 

So yeah, I'll be honest, my primary experiences with people who are kind of leaving addiction and going into the Church and trying to find hope and a community in that, but there's no doubt this is not an us and them reality. This is all of us dealing with the same underlying needs that drive us into the arms of addictive behaviors, addictive substances, but also the same kind of brain function that makes us incredibly vulnerable to these habits.

Erin: Yeah, totally agree. What's the misconceptions that you bump into about addiction within the Church?

Andy: I think one is that it's not here, that we don't have it in our walls. I think another one is that actually it's easy for someone with an addiction to be honest about that within the Church.

You know, it's a really, really difficult thing in a church setting. We have so many mixed sorts of modes of relationships in church. Lots of people sort of say, why can't the church be more like AA, Narcotics Anonymous, those kinds of safe spaces? 

The reality is, it's really hard to do that within the church, because the same person you sit down and share about your addiction with might be the same person you lead worship with on a Sunday morning. They might be the person you rub shoulders with, the mums and tots group, or whatever it might be. 

So, part of the challenge we face is . . . 

Erin: It can’t be anonymous.

Andy: . . . really safe spaces for people to talk about addiction—safe, secure, confidential spaces to talk about this issue.

Erin: Yeah, that's so important and so hard to do, because we do live intertwined lives. It was an overshare, sometimes even in the name of prayer, and it can be hard to preserve that need for confidentiality. 

Okay, we've talked about the problem. I know we could talk a lot more about the problem because it has many tentacles. But let's get to hope. What do you see in God's Word specifically about addiction?

Andy: Yeah, when I talk about addiction, I often talk about Batman and Spiderman. When we come to this as Christians, both sides of what I'm about to talk about are really important, and both are just absolutely rooted in God's Word. 

But the hope in addiction, well, first and foremost, EW the active ingredients that are community, that they're one another. And also this real belief that there is a pathway forward for me out of this. That's vital to say. 

So, when we come to this idea of Batman and Spiderman, I talk about the fact that Batman does what Batman does because he's got the tools for the job. He's equipped with the strategies with the people around him, with the bat ring, the Batmobile, all that all that stuff. And then when we come to Spiderman, Spiderman does what Spiderman does, because he's been bitten by that toxic spider, and he's transformed on the inside. That enables him to do what he does.

Actually, again, and coming back to misconceptions within the Church, I think in the Church we have a tendency to think it's all on the Spiderman side: I just need that one time of prayer that's going to unlock this. I just need to commit myself more. I need to go to church an extra time this week. And for sure, the X Factor, the true kind of heartbeat of recovery and of the life that that God calls us for is obviously found in Jesus Christ. We need to proclaim that hard, we need to proclaim it strong. 

But actually, there's a bunch of stuff on the Batman side that we also need to think about. We need to say, “Why did this take root? Why can't I shake it off? Who do I need alongside me to help me to deal with this? What is it in my environment that I need to change, other things in my working life?” We can go on and on, but it's really both sides of those. 

And I think, actually, if you look at Scripture, and you look at any journey with God in discipleship, you've got both that inside out transformation and the real need for wisdom and understanding and wise living.

Erin: Yeah, so good. I have four boys. So, I totally get the Batman/Spiderman analogy. And yeah, I think we think, Why don't we just have the superpower to resist in our own willpower? And when that doesn't work, we can fall over and over again.

There's another group, probably a bigger group, which is not the person who is addicted themselves. But the person who loves the person with the addiction. It can be the spouse of an addict. It can be the parent with a close friend of an addict. That can be such a painful journey. It can feel like it has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Put on your pastor’s hat, your pastor's heart. Let us see that for a minute. To the person who just loves an addict, what encouragement can you give?

Andy: It's a brilliant phrase that they use in the world of the twelve-step fellowships, which is: no one could do it for you, but you can't do it alone. 

No one can do it for you, but you can't do it alone. And again, you want there to be a magic solution, you want there to be this thing. But we all know, we've been talking about this, there are no magic solutions. 

I often think of the people of God in the wilderness. There was no shortcut to the promised land. There was no workaround, there was no shortcut. But as you watch the people on that journey, what do they do? 

Well, they have to take it one day at a time. The manna only comes daily. They have to stick together. They're in a very hostile environment, they can't go this alone. 

They have to stay close to the presence of God. They stay tight to that pillar of fire, to that cloud. So, the pastor's heart within me would just say, and this is so hard to do, because shame creeps in. The idea that I can solve this, and as I was saying earlier, that sense of, “I don't want people to know this. I don't want to open my life up. I don't want to take the risk.” You have to get vulnerable; you have to stay vulnerable, because you need people with you in the trenches. You can't do this alone. With others, with God, you can do it.

Erin: Yeah, I have a friend who's in this camp. I've often heard her say, “Nobody else has a kid who's addicted.” I've often thought, That is the flaming dart from the enemy if ever I've heard one. Because all it does is keep her isolated, keep her in a place of shame, and it's just simply not true. 

So, I want to reiterate something you've said many times, which is the community is essential to walking out of this place of bondage. I love that analogy of God's people in the wilderness that really tracks here.

You know, something I've seen, I've heard from a lot of people who struggle with addiction is, why doesn't God just take it away? I mean, sometimes we hear these radical stories of, “I was a drug addict. I came to Christ, and I never wanted to use drugs again. Or, I was an alcoholic. I came to Christ, and I never reached for a drink again.” 

But I think more often, they've come to Christ, and then they still have things that they wrestle with. Why do you think God doesn't just take away those cravings?

Andy: Million-dollar question. I know in my own life, that the things I pray God will take away are very often the things that keep me closest to Him. I can't answer the question why. What I do know is that in our emptiness, in our vulnerability, in our distress, it's when we cling closest to God.

I do know that there's a world coming, where God is making all things new, and the tears that lead us into addiction, the pain that's made us vulnerable to addiction, it's all going away. We talk about pie in the sky when we die and how God's got abundant life for us in the here and now, and that's absolutely right. 

But I think when you're alongside someone in addiction, it's actually really vital to just grip onto that eternal hope that this stuff is being resolved and that struggle will end one day.

Erin: No addiction in heaven, which is such an incredible hope. You're talking about the gospel. I don't know where we got the idea that we put the gospel on display by living perfect lives and never struggling, because the gospel is that we are desperately needy, and in desperate need of a Savior. As you were saying, those things make us cling closely to Jesus.

As you look at the Church in 2024, and you think about your long history with addiction, what's your hope for us? What do you hope God will revive within His people in the days ahead when it comes to this topic?

Andy: I think the start point would be just we take this from being a side hustle, to be in this thing on the edge, and we pull it into the center. I'd love to see each church say, “Who can champion recovery? Who can put addiction front and center on our agenda?” 

Because it is front and center of everybody's agenda, the stats we talked about earlier, it's what we're all dealing with to some extent or another. 

So, let's put it in the middle. Let's just start with coming to God and saying, “Hey, this is something we're struggling with. Lord, help us. Help us to help one another.”

Erin: Make it so Lord. I love that vision. Let's stop. Let's stop putting it behind closed doors in hushed tones. The enemy is working so hard in this area. Let's bring it to the middle. I love that thought. The name of your book is Hope in Addiction. We're going to drop the link because we know a lot of folks are going to want to grab it. Thanks for being on Grounded, Andy. I expected you to have a lot of wisdom and hope, and you delivered and I'm really, really grateful.

Andy: Bless you. Thank you, Erin. It's great to be with you guys.

37:43 - Grounded in God's Word (with Dannah)

Erin: Thank you so much. Dannah, I'm gonna turn it over to you. You're gonna keep us tethered in God's Word. And so, you got the floor.

Dannah: Yeah, I would love to. Well, what do you do if you're an addic or if you love one? You do one thing, and that is you get understanding. And this can be really difficult. That can be really confusing, but it's something that my husband and I did as we walked a pathway out of addiction and into redemption. 

Now, I'm not going to tell our whole story today. I do write about it with great transparency in my latest book, Happily Even After: Let God Redeem Your Marriage. But what I do want to do today is help you begin that process of getting understanding. 

As we had battled so many times,] through bouts of Bob's relapses into pornography, we finally had an elder in our church pull us aside. He said, “Bob and Dannah, get the best help that exists.”

He began to share with us a time that he had cancer, and he wasn't getting good results from some of the local help. And so, he decided he was going to go where the people who studied it most and understood it the most could help him. That's when he began to win the battle. 

He said, “I encourage you to do the same thing.” That was a game changing moment for me because I decided that I was going to do that. I want to turn you to Proverbs 4, because this is a verse that encouraged me in my journey to get understanding. It characterizes those walking and worldly sin as miserable and deeply addicted to their own destruction. 

And that same chapter advises,

Get wisdom, get understanding;
   don’t forget or turn away from the words from my mouth.
Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you;
   love her, and she will guard you.
Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom.
   And whatever else you get, get understanding.

That's Proverbs 4, verses 5–7. I want to help you get understanding by sharing some of the important scientific aspects of addiction that I've learned in our journey. 

Then I want to give you wisdom to know what God's Word says about the battle of addiction. Of course, my perspective is a bit from the journey of pornography addiction as my husband fought that but I believe that what I'm going to share applies no matter the type of addiction you may be facing. 

If you look at a single photon emission, computerized tomography, brain scan, that's called a SPECT scan. If you look at one of a healthy brain, you'll see a surface, and it's going to look nice and smooth. 

But if you put that same brain next to a porn addict and a heroin addict, you're gonna see craters in that brain. Let me show you what that looks like in this image here. 

Again, if you're listening to the podcast, you might want to check out the videocast on the YouTube channel at Revive Our Hearts.

But you see all those pock marks and those craters? That is heroin or pornography, really just creating Swiss cheese out of the brain. It's all full of holes. That's what pornography and heroin do to a brain. 

Now, heroin is one of the most dangerous substances in the addiction world. Pornography has a very similar effect on a brain. But no matter what it is that's creating addiction, you're probably going to see some brain damage. 

The cratering happens because the brain is malleable. That simply means it can be changed and shaped by both physical impact, like say an accident that causes a concussion, or by function, like learning something. 

Now, researchers call that quality neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity means the brain can actually reshape itself to accommodate how we want to or need to use it. 

This is a really beautiful thing in God's design because it's what enables stroke victims to recover. It's what enables grandmas to strengthen their memory with sudoku. Just think about how beautiful that actually is. 

But unfortunately, neuroplasticity also exposes the brain to detrimental changes as a result of experiences like drug use or pornography addiction. 

And just as heroin or a car accident can destroy the structure and function of a brain, so do the chemicals rushing through our brain when we're overstimulated again and again by many things. 

The high comes from dopamine. Dopamine is a neurochemical that rewards the brain when we do something that's enjoyable or potentially useful for survival. I mean, if you eat a good Krispy Kreme doughnut, dopamine. You run a half mile on a treadmill, dopamine. One of them is better for you than the other, I'll let you decide. 

But when someone becomes an addict, their brain gets hooked on the dopamine, not necessarily just the substance that they're using, but the dopamine. 

And what began as a moral problem is now also a brain problem. And this is where we get to come back to God's Word now. What began as a moral problem is now also a brain problem, a sin problem has grown into an addiction when the brain begins to be damaged. 

Now, I use the term “addiction” cautiously. There are a lot of reasons for that. My main concern is that a preoccupation with addiction can erase a healthy understanding of a biblical language of sin. 

The language of psychology and addiction has partially eclipsed the language of sin. There's one author I really like. His name is Jay Stringer, and he's the author of Unwanted: How Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing. He observes that the same could be said about the language of addiction, that psychology has eclipsed the language of addiction. 

He writes specifically about sexual addictions. But this could apply to anything. I want to read this to you. 

One of the growing realities in our culture is that we use the word sin less and less to describe problematic sexual behavior. The preferred word if we recognize any disorder at all, is now addiction. This shift is good in that it forces us to exchange our intellectual laziness for a most curious engagement with the origins of our brokenness. What I'm discouraged by, however, is that Scripture uses the most beautiful and wise words I've ever read to talk about sin.” 

And then he says, 

I believe we need a model that integrates sin and addiction. I've found that the more I understand what the Bible says about sin, the more I understand the nature of addiction. And the more I understand what science reveals about addiction, the more I understand the nature of sin. 

I could not agree more with Jay Stringer. Addicts often describe feeling powerless against their behavioral sin, whether it's coffee or food or heroin or porn. They feel as if they are in bondage to their appetites. 

I think Jesus would agree with that. In fact, he said exactly that to a group of His Jewish followers who questioned whether they were in any kind of bondage. 

In John 8:34, Jesus answered their question by saying, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” 

Do I have to remind you that we've all practiced sin? In fact, in some areas of sin, I've gotten very good at it. Essentially, we have no ability whatsoever to achieve our own freedom from it. We are enslaved to it. Check out Romans 5:6 if you don't believe me. 

The reality is, all of us who have accepted Christ are in recovery from our enslavement to sin. 

Some are recovering from substance abuse, some from workaholism, that's one of my drugs of choice. Some from pride, that's probably a drug of choice all of us have reached for. Some from porn, some from gossiping, some from slothfulness, some from greed, some from fundamental selfishness. Just look around you. People in your church are in recovery from a thousand different kinds of enslavement to sin. At the end of the day, these people are responsible for their behavioral sensitive matter, whatever they call them. 

Let me tell you where I'm prone to addiction. Sugar fell to that one this morning. Work and carbs, scrolling social media, shopping when I feel sad, approval addiction, I could go on. 

What are your addictions? What are your areas of enslavement to sin? 

When someone you love or you experience addiction, you can call yourself or them anything you want. You can call them an addict. You can call yourself an addict. At the end of the day, you're still responsible for choices and actions, or your loved one is. The only thing sufficient to buy your husband, your daughter, your son, you back for the enemy's grip is the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. 

Oh, you can use all the psychology and all the addiction therapy tools you want to diagnose you. They're great for that. But the only one that can save you from that is Jesus. 

Let me keep reading from John chapter 8. Remember, Jesus had just said everyone who practiced this then is a slave to sin. Then He goes on to say this, “The slave does not remain in the house forever. The Son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” 

If Jesus the Son sets you free from that addiction, that sin, you will be free. Not just kind of free, not just sort of free, not just a little free, but free indeed. Jesus said free for sure.

If you don't feel free for sure, then you're still working out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now that doesn't mean your salvation is dependent on you. It means that we have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work in our life as He sanctifies us from our enslavement. 

I want to tell you something. If you're dealing with addiction in your life or someone else's life, you've already heard this today on Grounded, you can't do it alone. It's medical, it's complicated. You need help. But please, no matter where you get your help, do not amputate the work of Jesus Christ from your toolbox of recovery. Satan, the one responsible for ours like medicine, he is a formidable enemy. And you need help from Christian people who are wise about the spiritual disciplines that will enable you to access the power of God's Spirit. 

Portia: Thanks, Dannah. You know, I feel like with an episode like this, se just need to end with some prayer. So let me pray.

Father, we thank You that You are always near to us—whether we're on the mountaintop or down in the valley. Lord, I pray that You will be near to those who may be battling addictions right now, and even those who are in proximity to someone battling addictions. May your presence be felt so strongly in their lives. We know that You can deliver, and so we ask for that. It's in Jesus Christ's name that we pray, amen.

Well, thank you friends for joining us for this special month of favorites from our Grounded archives. Before you go today, let me tell you, the signs that summer won't last forever are everywhere. The ads in your inbox, the back-to-school sales at the store. And if you lead a Bible study, questions from the women in your group are, "What are we studying next?" I get that one a lot.

While we can't help you with school supplies or your fall wardrobe, you can count on Revive Our Hearts to provide trustworthy resources for your fall Bible study needs. And so now through August 14, we are offering some of our most popular studies at discounted prices. Stress less and save more by choosing your fall curriculum today. We're going to drop a link in the episode notes in the chat. Check out this awesome Bible study sale. You will not regret it.

Next month on Grounded we're going to continue with some really helpful favorite episodes during our summer edition. As we approach August, our minds are thinking about how to push reset on our Bible study habits. So, we'll be bringing you some practical encouragement and specific ideas on how to study the Bible this fall. You don't want to miss it.

Let's wake up with hope together next time on Grounded. 

Grounded audio is powered by Skype. Grounded is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom fullness and fruitfulness in Christ

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.