Helping Strategy
We can contribute in three ways to helping a person become free of a drug dependency:
• Help the individual spiritually, by seeking his or her commitment to Christ.
• Put him or her in touch with a local drug rehabilitation center, where he or she can begin the process of withdrawal and recovery.
• Stay with the person in order to offer support and encouragement until he or she has a deeper understanding of what it means to make a commitment to Christ.
1. Do not moralize about the evils of drugs or the person's addiction. Use the Scriptures on sin only as opportunities to do so occur naturally in your presentation of the Gospel.
2. Be cordial. Be compassionate. Encourage him or her by saying that you are sympathetic and willing to listen and offer help.
3. Hear the person out, giving ample opportunity for the expression of feelings and opinions. Offer reassurance of God's love. God's grace is sufficient to meet any need in his or her life. (A definition of grace: God loves us with no strings attached.)
4. The inquirer will need to be faced with his or her responsibility for the addiction. At some point, he or she made a conscious choice to take drugs. He or she has moral responsibility for the behavior which led to the addiction. If there is an effort to lay the blame for the problem at the feet of circumstances, other people, society, etc., always bring the discussion gently back to the issue of personal and moral responsibility: "But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed" (James 1:14, NIV).
5. At the opportune moment, share "Steps to Peace with God," page 11.
6. Continue to "Follow-Up Steps," if indicated: Start reading and studying God's Word. Learn to pray. Begin to fellowship with a Bible-teaching church.
7. The drug-dependent person must abandon the people and surroundings that have tied him or her to drugs. He or she must stop all use of drugs. This will probably mean treatment at a drug rehab center where withdrawal and early rehabilitation can be properly monitored. Aroundthe-clock supervision is often needed.