Day 20 | March 24 | Mark 9:14-29

He was a desperate father, longing for someone to help his child.  He’d worn out all other options. Now he was pleading with Jesus to do anything He could.  “’If you can’?” Jesus said. “Everything is possible for the one who believes.”  Why is it that most people turn to God only as a last resort?

I know what it’s like to be desperate, but it took flashing lights in the rearview mirror and handcuffs to bring me there.  Lying awake in my bed that night after being released, I finally asked if there was anything He could do about 50 years of alcohol addiction.  To my surprise, His answer was similar to the answer to that father.  “Just believe in Me.”  I did, and my life hasn’t been the same for the last eleven months!

There are plenty of wonderful programs and treatments out there doing their best to help people with addictions, but even at their best, they aren’t complete.  Every time I talk with others who are struggling with addictions at the AA meetings I attend, I tell them, “You aren’t going to get through this without Jesus.”  

I visited a treatment center recently to talk with a small group about to be released after having spent weeks confined there.  Two other speakers relayed their own personal stories, but at best, they offered nothing more than “follow the steps “or “pick yourself up by your own bootstraps” mentality.  When it was my turn to share, I was face to face with a young woman whose eyes were screaming with a hopelessness that said she knew that on the outside she would eventually return to the same habits that had placed her there in the first place.  All I could say, “You aren’t going to get through this without Jesus.”

You may not be going through anything that traumatic, but whatever it is just say, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”  When you read this I will have celebrated one year of sobriety. I can say that with confidence because, “I do believe”.