Jesus Christ taught me how to first Love myself then He showed me How to Love others as I Love myself!
Jesus loved me when I felt unlovable, empty, afraid, alone, despised, hated by all, broken and completely defeated. It was His Love that rescued me! It was His Love that delivered me! It was His Love that saved me! It was His Love that healed me and made me whole in Him! It was His Love that I was able to take within myself and then learn to give that Love back to Him. This taught me how to give Love as I received it. Now I am a precious child of God in Jesus Christ and because God loved me first I am able to Love Him back and I am able to take the Love he has given me and share it with others loving them as I was loved! Once I become one with Love then I can freely Love myself and others.
Mark 12:30-31
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Fear is the main force in alcohol and drug addiction. The substances we become addicted to give us a temporary reprieve from the fear that is ruling our lives. Fear is the main emotion that preys upon a person causing them to try and escape from its grips by any means necessary. Love conquers Fear and Love destroys the yoke of alcoholism and drug addiction and everything else that would try and binds us!
1 John 4:12-21
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Love God, Love yourself and Love others and let Love conquer the fear that fuels alcoholism and drug addiction…
~ Rev. Michael Bowen