Mat 5:3 (NIV) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What happens to you, when you become poor in spirit and Jesus starts teaching you how you should have lived? Mat 5:4 (NIV) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. What happens to you when you get God’s power-attitude of mourning and it deals with the fact that you are filled with world training things that are totally wrong and you must get rid of them?

You need God’s power-attitudes in order to win over your issues with alcohol. But, you can find yourself feeling worse than you were before you started this study. If you don’t find out how to feel about yourself and your problems, Satan and your self-esteem will hurt you. The solutions are wonderful, powerful, and a real blessing that is coming your way. But, you need to be able to properly receive the treatment that brings the healing.

Jesus makes this clear: John 15:5c (NIV) “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” If you are heavy into self-esteem and self-confidence rather than God-esteem and God-confidence, that Scripture may offend you. But, if you will give up believing in yourself, believing in your human reasoning and effort, and trusting in world training, you will find Jesus’ statement to be a real comfort to you. He will take all the pressure off of you. He will show you a way to live your life through Him and His power.

Mat 7:7 (NIV) Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Prayer is one of the most important procedures in all of Christianity. Since you are facing alcohol issues and many other challenges during your day, if you just try to figure it out using your brain, some other human’s brain, or try to use some system you have seen others use, you won’t grow spiritually. You will be putting your faith in world training and human effort.

Jesus is wanting to work on your spiritual growth, your power, your training, and your successes. When you face a problem, if you will simply address Jesus in your mind, that will get Him involved. The fact that you put your question and issue before Him means you just invited Him into the situation. He will cause His brilliant ideas to pop up in your head. He will make Himself available to you so you can start having Him surround you with His provisions.

Jesus is not only teaching you to ask Him for each issue of life, He is introducing you into the procedures for winning over your struggles with alcohol. Alcohol issues present a much bigger challenge than most of the other problems you have. So, Jesus helps you win over many of the other, smaller challenges so as to show you that what He is teaching you works. As you get better trained, experienced, skilled, and equipped, all these victories over these smaller issues will lead you right into total victory over your struggles with alcohol.

Prov 3:5-6 (AKJV) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. A lot of people get great pleasure from doing something “all by themselves.” Some of them get so much reward from it that they wouldn’t even consider inviting Jesus into their project. They will think, research, experiment, and give it their very best efforts. If they fail, they often are very disappointed, discouraged, and sometimes feel like they not only failed, they feel like they are a failure.

When you get to the place where you are able to accept help, you discover Jesus and His supernatural help. In other words, He not only accomplishes the task that you needed done, He fulfills it in a way that no one could have done it that well. This builds your faith in Him so He can take you all the way into total victory over alcohol issues.

In self-esteem and self-confidence, you get your rewards, value, and pleasure from feeling good about yourself. And, you are only able to feel good about yourself through people’s acceptance or self-acceptance. If you or other people say you are valuable and good, then that is your evaluation of yourself. But, if you fail to live up to your or other people’s expectations, you, your esteem and confidence, and your wellbeing with others drops. But, with Jesus, you are not what you do; you are not what you think about yourself; you are not who others say you are; and, you are not open for evaluation.

It is possible that you have never experienced acceptance based on a relationship. You may have had someone accept you because you are a member of their family, their company, or their group of friends. But, you will never experience a relational acceptance like you get from God. He has some sincerity requirements; but, if you sincerely want to live a righteous life and sincerely want to give up all bad and evil behavior, He will accept you with a supernatural love.

Isa 44:24 (NIV) This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.”

It isn’t easy to go from believing in yourself to putting your full trust in God. You have been having to depend on yourself for so much for so long. As you have gone about life, you may not have noticed all the things God has provided you. All the things you are surrounded with including your body came from Him. But, you may not have looked at it that way. You will need to pray and ASK God to help you see that all things that exist have come from Him. You are here because He made that possible.

Mat 7:11 (NIV) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your FATHER in heaven give good gifts to those who ASK Him! You are on a journey into a trust and reliance on God. You are wanting help from Him and He wants a relationship with you. The more you depend on Him, the more He does for you. The more He does for you, the more you learn to love and appreciate Him. This builds a loving relationship with your heavenly Father.

Mark 12:30 (NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Your heavenly Father is trying to build such a relationship with you that this love pours out of your heart. God isn’t having a hard time loving you; He demonstrated this before you even thought about coming to Him. Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The struggle is with you; He is reaching out to you so you will trust Him enough to let Him develop this love relationship.