ALTERNATE ACTIVITIES ARE VITALLY IMPORTANTLY

1. To quit an addiction we decide to do new activities and then we do them. They are not for fun, play, pleasure, or profit. It is wise to treat them like work or some great difficult goal.
   
   
2. Example: I decide my new activity is playing the piano. First I set a goal: 30 minutes per day. # 2 Decide exactly when you will do it: 6:30 PM. # 3 Say 10 times daily why you need to do this activity: “I need to play the piano so that I stop being a slave to ______.” # 4 Pray, “Father take away this spirit of lust, and show me how playing the piano will help me to do Your will someday.”
   
   
3. Spiritual goals should be # 1 in life. But after that, your activity goals should sometimes be the next most important. But what about family. It is a balance, a juggling game that you need to play until you get healthy. One solution to the family question is to work out with them. Do a hobby with them.
   
   
4. New activities are not great fun if you are really addicted. Addiction uses up all our fun and leaves us dark and empty. So keep this in mind. The exact same activities that you don't love in week one of quitting seem a lot better in week 4 after you have been clean for a month and are in a good place with God.
   
   
5. Someday, some of your new activities will become positive addictions. I lift weights every day. I play either the piano or bass guitar virtually every day. I write articles about addiction every day and I do many other things every day.
   
   
6. Secondly, I want to try to explain how life gets better after we quit. With addiction we move from fun event (hopefully) to fun event. Trying to find answers, fun, thrills. With freedom plus Jesus, we start to find increasing joy, and answers. With addiction, we watch TV always searching frantically for thrills. With freedom plus Jesus, we start to enjoy clean TV and we start to find contentment. With addiction, there are no answers. With freedom plus Jesus, we start to find a purpose for living. With addiction, we are driven, driven, driven. A constant flurry of trying to find... I don't know what. With freedom plus Jesus, we can ask Jesus what He wants us to do. Then we are filled with His peace and we can do His will. With addiction, we sometimes struggle with family and people. With freedom plus Jesus, we learn how important it is to live in love.
   
   
7. Activities are key. They will change your life if you make it a priority to do them daily.
   

 

Exercise is a key. Movement makes us feel good. Write out a plan for exercise and for alternate activities. Studies show that we are twice as likely to succeed with a plan when we write it down.
Copy and paste quitting articles that will help you. Then write out your plan. When, where, how. It works.

 

Satan will be right there fighting with you if you are determined to replace what he wants you to do with new activities.

Pray: “Father, help me to get active.”

Satan is even more upset if you decide that sin is the problem.

Pray: “Father, show me how fighting sin will improve my life.”

Psalms 23 starts: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Wow! When we do things God's way we will not “want” for anything.

Satan says to skip your daily Bible reading, skip going to church. But if you listen to him you start to cut God's promises out of the Bible. One after another.

Satan reminds you that you struggle to spend time in prayer. Here is the thing. We need to thoroughly repent of all sin first. We need to have a perfect plan to change first. Then... spending time in prayer will be the highlight of our day.

Here is what to do if you are determined to learn how to pray, but the truth is – you have no idea how to do it. Read a chapter in the Bible. Pray about it or anything on your heart. Read one article from Nofap, pray about it for 5 minutes. Read another article from Nofap, pray 5 minutes, read 1 or 2 of the verses for quitting, pray 5 minutes about them, rinse and repeat for an hour.

Five-star spiritual activities are spectacular for quitting. These include daily Bible study, prayer, getting together with other believers, studying Nofap, and helping others. Make it a priority to do your spiritual activities first. Then, make it a priority to add practical activities. For most people, both are needed.

 

My dad was a preacher at a very small church. There was never much money but he kept trying. The church never really grew but he kept trying for decades. At his funeral, I was shocked by how many important people were so impressed with his life. Now, 8 years later, I am really impressed by what he did with his life. His faith and belief changed many lives, but it never would have happened if he had stopped trying.

Second, you will never know how you impact the world just by trying to do things Jesus way. My dad kept trying when he thought no one was watching. But “we” were watching, and because of him, I plan to “Keep trying” till the day I die.

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