How To Pray When Someone You Love Is Addicted Part 2

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. We're so glad you tuned in. I think you're going to be too, because today's show, we're going to be talking about how hope lies ahead, actually praying for the addicted, part two, right, James? That's right.

That's right. Last week, we talked about if you're someone you love is wrestling with an addiction, how to pray for them. And we talked about praying for wisdom and praying to get your love from God and then, you know, praying every day for those you love. And we're going to continue on some of those themes today because there is such a need in our country for this. Of course, we're in the middle of an ongoing crisis with fentanyl and so many families are hurting.

It's worse than we know. You hear about, you know, the numbers in the news, but those numbers, those only represent individuals who have been affected, but entire families are affected by this crisis and friends. And so we really want to make a difference. And a couple of years ago, many of you may know our story. My son was a former heroin addict, and he is in student ministry today. He's a pastor to students and he helps them avoid making some of the decisions that he made. And together, we wrote a book called Hope Lies Ahead.

And that book is available through our daily bread, my publisher, also through Amazon or through Christian book distributors. But there are several stories about prayer. And today I wanted to share some of those stories and kind of the lessons that we've learned about prayer as we lived through this.

So I want to just start by encouraging you, if there is someone whom you love in your life who is wrestling with addiction, and you have just been going through it and you don't know how to go forward, I want to encourage you to pray and just give your disappointment to Jesus. If your child were sick or had another problem, people would bring meals to your door and listen sympathetically. But when your child is an addict, you don't get a casserole. Man, I'll never forget that moment because as she stood there, I realized how true that was, how often entire families can be judged just by a choice that someone has made out of weakness. And, you know, we have to realize that any of us can make choices in weakness. And so we need to have that compassion.

And no one is more compassionate than Jesus. So give your disappointment to him. He will meet you in that place. He will help you. And he will encourage you.

Well, you know, that is, it's just so true. And, you know, something to think about, right, in your Sunday school class when you know a family is going through something like this, if there was ever a time to send the casserole or send love so they don't feel judged, they do know that you're on their side and, you know, you're praying with them for their loved one. Yeah, that is so true, just to be Jesus' presence and just love them again, just love them as they're going through this challenging time.

So that's the first, give your disappointment to Jesus. The second is God for small victories. And here's another excerpt.

This is from page 46. One of the upsides of the challenges we were facing with Jeff was that they forced us to try to live increasingly in the moment with God. And the chapter that I'm reading from is called Today Was a Good Day.

And Kerry and I had that practice of just, you know, when a day went by without any drama, that's what we'd say today was a good day. We learned to thank God for that. So, again, going back to the book, a quiet desperation drove us to prayer day after day. We held on to the hope that God could change Jeff's will, even if he didn't want him to. God had ways of reaching inside Jeff that we couldn't begin to understand.

Where our reasoning failed, God would know the way. But how do you pray on those days when you're all prayed out, when you've gone over the same thing so frequently in your prayers that you've run out of things to say to God? On a bad day, you can wonder if your prayers make any difference at all, if they're even being heard. But the prayer, how long, occurs again and again in Scripture. Psalms 13, 35, 79.

I mentioned some other references. So we came to understand that God wanted us to also pray our questions and weaknesses, to bring it all to him. Real prayer isn't about having to get the words right or having your act together so you're somehow good enough to approach God. It's about a relationship with someone who already loves us more than life itself and bends with compassion to meet us in our mess. You know, the things God did eventually convicted me of my lack of faith, but even before we got there, there were signal moments along the way. And here's one, and I write about this in a chapter called, Squandered Near Angels, but this is something that happened to my wife one night. And I write, paradise, a prodigal in crisis, can be like swimming under water.

You're constantly under pressure. You feel like you can only hold out for so long. Communication with God in those moments is difficult and muffled at best, but occasionally, often in the darkest moments, there's a breakthrough. Even though your circumstances don't change, God somehow lifts you above them.

Those moments are like oxygen for the soul. That was what happened the night Carrie returned home with Jeff. Jeff had passed out, collapsed like a merry man in the passenger seat beside her.

Let me fill you in a little on the backstory. What had happened was that Jeff had been living with his sister, had stolen money from her to buy drugs. She had kicked him out as a result, which was understandable under the circumstances, and Carrie drove down to Wilmington to get him. Now, keep in mind, today Jeff is a youth pastor in Wilmington, a city where he wants to abuse drugs.

All things are possible with God. So Jeff is high, and she brings him in the car, and he's basically just doped up, you know, sitting in the passenger seat. And here's what God is doing with Carrie. Her heart was aching. How could it come to this? She wondered. How could someone who had so much potential, who had been given so much, squander at all?

And for what? What would his future be like? Where was all of this headed? The road was empty. Mile rolled on after mile with nothing but the droning hum and click of tires on pavement. Then she saw them, four of them, one beside each fender of the car, and suddenly all was silent. The way Carrie describes it, she felt as if she was floating while still being carried along at constant speed. The car, a heavy older model Mercedes, no longer felt like it was touching the ground. What she saw were angels.

Each one looked masculine, but they were all larger than a man, and each one was holding the corner of the car aloft. They flew effortlessly, fast and low, robes aflame with light, faces determined but not threatening, even friendly. So now, Carrie wasn't frightened. She was comforted. Well, let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for James and this amazing book, Hope Lies Ahead. And we just pray that you'd continue to send those angels and take care of us as we desperately need you. And I thank you so much for what you've done and what you're doing in these folks' lives as it just all points back to you. And we ask for your help in Jesus' name. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.