MCLEODS, New Brunswick, January 19, 2024 – A while back, I attended a Bible Study at a homeless shelter. I only went for a few sessions, as I quickly learned that the study was less about the Bible and more about persuading the participants to attend the 12-step addictions program meeting held in the same room as the Bible Study, but on different days.

I will say from the outset – full disclosure – that I am not a fan of the 12-step program. I’m definitely not a fan of it for Christians, but I’m also leery of it for non-believers. I think at its core it’s a cult that aims to suck you in for life and make you dependent on it. It also aims to get you to bring others into the cult. I do not buy their assertion that alcoholism or any other kind of addiction is a disease. I do not buy that a person who hasn’t had a drink in decades should still privately and publicly label him- or herself an alcoholic. I do not buy that you need to lean on “mentors” for support rather than God. And I definitely don’t buy that you refer to God as a “higher power” rather than God. Frankly, the whole program and the people who run it give me the creeps. I think the higher power they worship is not God.

As I said – full disclosure. I never mince my words for believers.

If you’re a Christian, you don’t need a 12-step program because you’ve got the one-step program, courtesy of Jesus. The one-step program is calling out to God for help, in Jesus’ name. If you sincerely call out to God for help, he will help you. That is his promise, graven in scripture and on your heart. But if you only half-heartedly call out for help or do so in a double-minded way, God won’t help you. That is also graven in scripture. If you call yourself a Christian but then run to other people for help, God will probably also not help you. And if you call yourself a Christian and then bypass the one-step program for the 12-step program, you no longer have a right to call yourself a Christian.

What is a Christian? A Christian is a born-again follower of Jesus. As a born-again follower of Jesus, a Christian does what Jesus taught, guided, instructed, and directed his followers to do. Jesus taught them to go directly to God for help, in his name. Jesus did not say to go to other people for help: He said to go directly to God.

I’m talking to Christians here. If you’re suffering from some kind of addiction or obsession or something that keeps popping up in your life that you know is not right, you run to God for help. You don’t run to a doctor or a counsellor or a friend or a spouse or a minister or a priest or a 12-step program mentor. You run to God in Jesus’ name. You 100% submit to God, and he will help you. Sure, you can run to a doctor or a counsellor or a 12-step program mentor or even Santa Claus, if you want to (you still have free will as a Christian), but the only help you’ll get from them is the help that they can provide, which is a far cry from the help God can give you.

When God helps, he heals miraculously, and the healing, when it comes, is instantaneous, full, and permanent. Almighty God “makes whole”, which is the very definition of healing. People who offer their help, whether informally or professionally, usually only treat the symptoms, and that over a long period of time, and only partially and temporarily, and at great emotional and financial cost.

I was healed by God. I cried out for help and God healed me. He didn’t make me perfect; he made me spiritually whole. At the same time, he put his Holy Spirit in me and I became a follower of Jesus. The whole thing happened in an instant but has remained my reality for nearly 25 years.

Again, God made me whole at my rebirth; he didn’t make me perfect. I still have temptations and tests to grapple with, but I run to God for help with those and he always helps me, fully, instantaneously, and permanently. So when I tell you to run to God in Jesus’ name, I’m not simply repeating what Jesus told us to do: I’m telling you from deep personal experience gained over a long period of time as a born-again believer.

Submit yourself 100% to God in Jesus’ name, and God will help you.

It takes only one step.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen.