As I was preparing for my sermon on addiction, I was reading about the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous.  It was really fascinating how it all came together.  The gist of it is that two influential guys got released from their addiction to alcohol (Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith) through a spiritual 'release' that came as they prayed and openly confessed their powerlessness to overcome the addiction.  This time of prayer and release was then followed by some radical steps to root out all traces of the addiction.  The one that really caught my eye was the step that required them to give themselves freely to other alcoholics, helping them to overcome alcoholism as well.  This goes to the heart of everything good in life . . . the best things in life come to us as we freely give our time and energy and prayers to others.

As one who has never been through a 12 step program, I was really astounded when I read through the steps.  If you can get over the political correctness of the steps and just insert Jesus everywhere where it references God or a higher power, then you will see that they are really awesome and very biblical.  I put them here for your perusal, as they are useful in overcoming any and every addiction, whether it be alcohol, drugs, food, sex, porn, spending, worrying, etc.

These are the original Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous^:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

If you are struggling with an addiction, remember this - just about everyone in the world has struggled with some form of addiction at some point in their life.  You are not alone and you are not just a weak person.  You just have to find a trusted friend who knows and loves God and ask them to go through the steps above with you.  Addictions are never overcome in isolation because a key part of breaking the addiction is confessing it to another person.  So don't submit yourselves any longer to the master of porn or alcohol or brownies or whatever it is.  Submit yourself to Jesus, who is a much better master, and submit yourself to one of your friends who can help you walk through this journey.