The Bible and the 12 Steps Provide Ability to Overcome
Testimonial
My name is Steve and I’m a Seventh day Adventist Christian and a recovered alcoholic and addict. Twenty years ago, I didn’t know what any of those things were.
I had a good education and worked in the computing industry for several well-known organizations and universities in England and Europe. I was a “social drinker”, which seemed normal amongst many of the professional people I mixed with. I also developed a taste for “recreational drugs” which although not as common, were surprisingly prevalent in some of those environments.
Around the age of 30 though, a series of personal events in my life, coupled with increasingly excessive drinking and drug-taking, left me with a deep feeling of depression. Despite now seeing clearly the effects that drinking and my other habits were having on me, I also found out that I seemed unable to stop for any sustained period, even if I generally had strong willpower in other areas of my life.
In desperation one day I visited an empty church alone at lunchtime – and even though I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, I felt God’s peace and love enter my heart. I began reading the Bible and after some time found a church which I began attending every week. I also began attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and was struck by how the principles I learned there were so similar to those I was learning from the Bible.
I stopped drinking and was baptized some months afterwards and haven’t felt tempted to drink or take drugs in the years since then. I did, however, have struggles with lust (e.g. pornography) and with controlling my appetite – but I found that by applying the same principles I’d learned through the Bible and using the structure of the 12 Steps of AA, and with the fellowship of those I met in similar recovery groups (such as the Journey to Wholeness) and the prayers of Christian brothers and sisters, I was able to overcome those problems too.
Steve E.