How to Find Lasting Freedom from Addiction Through Christ – Episode 379

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Episode Summary:

Welcome to Your Hope-Filled Perspective with Dr. Michelle Bengtson for Part 2 of my conversation with Jonathan M. Seidl, author of Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic. If you missed Part 1, I encourage you to listen to that episode first, where Jon vulnerably shared how, as a Christian leader, he found himself entangled in the grip of alcoholism.

In today’s episode, we pick up where we left off, diving deeper into Jon’s road to recovery, what breaking free actually looked like, and how others can find lasting hope from their own battles with addiction, shame, and secrecy. Jon doesn’t just tell a story of struggle. He gives us a roadmap for surrender, accountability, and freedom through Christ. Whether you’re facing your own entanglement or walking alongside someone who is, this episode is packed with truth, grace, and the kind of hope that transforms lives.

If you or someone you love has ever struggled with hidden pain, addiction, or the pressure to keep up appearances, this conversation is for you. Jon’s story is a testimony to the power of grace, truth, and the freedom found in Christ.

Quotables from the episode:

  • I’m the Christian that became an alcoholic, not the other way around.
  • The church is usually okay with and knows how to handle the other way around. The alcoholics who become Christians. But what do you do with the Christians who become alcoholics or the Christians who become adulterers, or the Christians who become addicts, the Christians who become bulimics… what do you do with those people?
  • What I’m praying is that this conversation opens up the eyes of people in the church in general, Christians in general, to understand that we are all on a journey of what I call messy sanctification.
  • Salvation is a lifeline, but sanctification is a lifetime process.
  • You can’t fall from grace…God’s grace.
  • A pastor friend was talking about his journey. And he said, “I was two was two or three years into pastoring the church when I first realized that the gospel is for Christians as well.” We think about the gospel being to reach “the lost,” and it is, it is good news. Gospel means good news, but guess what? It’s also for us!
  • You will do most of your sinning after you become a Christian. I think about that. I became a Christian at eight, now at 38, 31 years of my life I’ve been sinning. I’ve been sinning since I’ve become a Christian–that’s a lot more sins than before I was a Christian, right? Obviously, then the gospel, the good news, is for us as well.
  • Salvation is a lifeline. Sanctification is a lifetime. It’s that process of becoming more like Jesus. It starts by each person realizing I didn’t stop sinning when I became a Christian.
  • God only works through sinners. There was one guy he worked through that wasn’t a sinner… Jesus. But other than that, he only works through sinners. We’re all sinners.
  • I didn’t wake up that day thinking that was going to be my rock bottom. I didn’t wake up thinking that was going to be the last time I drank. The road to recovery is paved in relapse. But I didn’t wake up thinking I was going to make the commitment that day.
  • I think we have to embrace this idea of messy sanctification.
  • You can beat parts of yourself into submission. You can beat them into silence, but guess what you’re doing? You’re only hurting yourself.
  • Healing is like an onion. God helps heal the outside layer and lets us live in that healing for a little bit. And then at a later time, it’s time to peel back the next layer. And then it’s time to peel back the next layer. God is gentle and gracious that way. Healing is for a lifetime.
  • Anything mis-ordered is disordered.
  • You can drink more than me and not be an alcoholic, but you can drink less than me and be an alcoholic. Is quantity an indicator? Yes, but it is not the only indicator.
  • I don’t want you to just be sober. I want you to be here, especially if your drinking is so destructive, it’s killing you. I want you to be here. So please get sober. But don’t stop there. Because there’s something better for you. There’s something better waiting for you than just sobriety.
  • There’s the physical layer. That physical layer is the one that most people just know. It’s the cravings, it’s the proclivities, it’s in my family tree.
  • From the physical layer, you go to the cultural layer. Culture is telling us the alcohol industry is huge. The alcohol industry will survive and they’re going to find ways to make it even cooler and look better.
  • The third layer is kind of the spiritual layer. And within the spiritual layer is the spiritual warfare aspect. We live as creatures in this fallen and broken world where we can know, where we can understand, where we can have the knowledge just not act on it.
  • I knew what the Bible said about getting drunk. I knew what I was supposed to be doing. Jesus talked about the church and he’s like, “you know, you guys have all the right theology, you have all the right doctrine, you’re technically doing all the right things, but you’ve abandoned your first love, you’ve abandoned me.” And I think that’s the best explanation for me in that aspect of the spiritual layer, which is I had all the right knowledge, I was on staff at a church. I could counsel people and give them wisdom in certain things, but I had just abandoned that love and that desire to cultivate an experiential relationship with Jesus.
  • Then there’s this kind of trauma layer. There were things that happened to me as a child and through my young life that I just didn’t know what to do with. And then as an adult, I just didn’t want to deal with them. I didn’t want to revisit them.
  • When I look at trauma, and if I really look at what that is, brokenness, right? It’s rupture, it’s sin, right? I think to a degree, everyone does have trauma. Now, there’s a difference between big T trauma and lower T trauma. I think there’s a lot of people who, for a variety of reasons, they either don’t want to deal with it.
  • So those are the layers in my life that I had to peel back and go through and am still going through. It’s crucial to interrupt those patterns.
  • I remember as a clinical neuropsychologist and being in the throes of a severe bout of depression, and the one thing that motivated me to keep going is that I wanted it to stop with my generation because I had seen it in generation after generation before me and I wanted to figure out how do we get to the root and stop this? I didn’t want my kids to have to go through that or worse, but it really requires going into that painful place.
  • Healing is a journey through highs and lows, and it can be pretty painful, but I’m grateful for the Lord’s graciousness and how much he lets us handle at one time.
  • I was caught in sin. My relationship with alcohol was on and off and it was always mis-ordered and disordered.
  • That big word sanctification is the daily working out our salvation and dying to self. It’s a moment by moment thought by thought decision by decision process. The Holy Spirit is still working and willing to help us become more like our Savior.
  • That’s what the enemy wants us to believe: “This is too big. What would other people think?” Who cares what other people would think? God is beckoning us by the power of the Holy Spirit to come to him. He knows about it anyway.
  • Healing starts with abiding in Christ. I think for a lot of my life having grown up in the church, it’s like, you know, you get these kind of trite phrases and whatnot. And what I can tell you is that when I get to the end of my rope, you realize how precious Jesus is when he’s all you have to cling on to. This is the only step that must be done first. But it has to start with step one: you have to spend time with Jesus.
  • Step number two is finding your true identity. And I’m not just talking about your identity as a child of God. That’s your general identity. What I’m talking about is find that specific thing that he has called you to, that he has wired you to do, that he’s given you the gifts to do.
  • I think so many of us try to drown out the noise of the world because we’re not operating out of our true identity. We’re swimming upstream and you get tired, and you just want to escape from that. But maybe if you were swimming with the current and operating out of what you were supposed to be doing, you wouldn’t be so burned out and tired.
  • The third step is radical vulnerability. That adjective there is really important. We’re okay with talking about the vulnerability. I think it’s become kind of in vogue lately. I’m talking about being radically vulnerable—a whole new level of vulnerability.
  • The final step is obedience. It’s a dirty word in culture today, especially when you talk about obedience to God. And yet what I have found is you want the abiding aspect, you’ll learn how when you abide, how much more you have to trust God. A great way to trust the Lord is to be obedient to him. You don’t obey what you don’t trust.
  • The four steps of healing include abiding with Christ, finding your true identity, practicing radical vulnerability, and being obedient to God. I can tell you by following those four steps, I kicked alcohol, I found sobriety, but most importantly, I found more of Jesus, and I can’t overstate what that has done in my life.
  • By practicing those four steps, I can truly say this has been hard, but it has been good.
  • CS Lewis, says, “Pain is a megaphone that God uses to rouse a deaf world.”
  • If that journey brings us closer in our relationship with Jesus, it’s so worth it. If that journey gives us greater compassion for the suffering of our families and our neighbors, it was worth it. If that journey teaches us more about ourselves and our sinful nature and our need for a savior, it was worth it.

Recommended Resources: (If there are affiliate links in this post, meaning, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you)).

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For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at:

Order Book Sacred Scars / Order book The Hem of His Garment / Order book Today is Going to be a Good Day / Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  / Order Book Hope Prevails Bible Study /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast on Apple

 

Salvation is a lifeline. Sanctification is a lifetime. If you've ever wondered why healing takes time, this conversation with @JonSeidl is for you. Share on X Healing starts by abiding in Christ. @JonSeidl shares four practical steps that helped him find freedom from addiction and grow closer to Jesus. Share on X

 

About Jon Seidl:

 

Jon Seidl, authorJonathon M. Seidl has been telling stories his whole life. In fact, he’s written over 10,000 of them, first after helping start a successful news website and then as the editor in chief of the popular nonprofit I Am Second. He’s the author of the new book Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic, a radically vulnerable story of being the Christian who became an alcoholic and his climb out of addiction and how others can break free from life’s entanglements. He currently runs the popular daily devotional website The Veritas Daily (theveritasdaily.com), where he writes on faith, culture, and addiction while also completing his master’s in theological studies from Southwestern Seminary. Originally from Wisconsin, he lives in Frisco, Texas, with his wife, Brett, and their children, Annie and Jack.

 

Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson
Audio Technical Support: Ashton Bengtson

 

Sobriety can be an important first step, but lasting healing often requires addressing the deeper spiritual, emotional, and personal issues beneath addiction. Learn biblical principles for finding lasting freedom from addiction through Christ and discover practical steps toward hope and healing. Save this pin to return to when you need encouragement or want to share hope with someone else.

 

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