A Word from Bob: Keep reading for 17 Biblical Counseling Resources Related to Addiction.
Where do you turn when a family member asks you, “What would you recommend I read for help with my struggles with anxiety?”
Where do you turn when someone in church says, “Do you have any books you recommend that would help me deal with the sexual abuse I experienced 20 years ago as a child?”
If a friend was struggling in their marriage, what trusted resources would you recommend they read?
If you were experiencing difficulties in parenting, what would you read?
Questions like these led me to develop The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition.
The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition
Nearly every week someone was emailing me, sending me a text, posting to me on Facebook, leaving me a Twitter private message, or asking me in person:
“Bob, could you recommend some biblical counseling resources for __________?”
For years I thought:
“I need to carve out time to collate an annotated list of recommended biblical counseling resources.”
Finally, in 2018, I carved out the time. The 2018 list had 465 resources. The 2019 version had 690 resources and 160 pages. The new, improved, expanded, updated, and upgraded 2020 version of The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources now has 920 resources covering 230 pages.
- Each resource is listed by topic/category.
- Each topic category is alphabetized by author—to make it easy to locate.
- Each resource includes a direct link to where you can purchase the item.
- Each resource includes a one-paragraph summary description.
Two Options
Option #1, Individual Orders: For individuals, you can go here to purchase a copy of the PDF of The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition. And here’s a shortened, easy-to-share link:
Option #2, 100 Copies for $100: Something new in 2020: for churches, para-church groups, and organizations, you can go here to purchase 100 copies for $100 of the PDF The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition. This order grants permission to distribute up to 100 copies of the PDF either via email attachment or via hard copy (printed by the church/para-church organization). Here’s a shortened link:
A Sampler: 17 Biblical Counseling Resources Related to Addiction
Here’s a sampler from just one category in The Annual Guide.
Note: Also see the category: “Pornography, Sexual Addiction, Sexual Sin, & Sexual Purity.”
Addiction: Booklets and Study Guides for Groups or Individuals
Daugherty, Jonathan. Grace-Based Recovery: A Safe Place to Heal and Grow
Grace-Based Recovery is a resource for addiction support and recovery groups. Daugherty designed it to help people suffering from addiction and those close to them understand God’s grace and why it is the only path to true freedom. With nine easy-to-use lessons, Grace-Based Recovery highlights the differences between a performance-based approach to recovery and a grace-based approach. It seeks to establish a safe environment where addicts can learn from their mistakes rather than be punished for them.
Dunham, David. Addictive Habits: Changing for Good
Open a newspaper, browse the Internet, or talk to a friend, and you’ll hear story after story of the horrors of enslavement to addiction. This daily devotional by Pastor David Dunham addresses these addictive habits, reminding readers of God’s truth and helping them apply it to their lives. Pastor Dunham discusses the addicted person’s responsibility, their relationship with the God who can free them, and approaches for restructuring their lives and remaining faithful long-term.
Guzman, Eric. The Gift of Addiction: How God Redeems Our Pain
Erik Guzman explains that when we think it’s up to us to rise above our suffering or sin, we alienate ourselves from our only source of help. When we come to the end of ourselves, realize that our addictions have controlled us, and turn in desperation to God, then we see that coming to the end of what we can do is the beginning of faith. That is the gift of addiction.
Monroe, Phil. When You Love an Addict: Wisdom and Direction
Loving an addict is incredibly painful. Not only do you have to watch them make the same mistakes over and over again, but along the way they often lie to you, hurt you, and betray you. And yet, against all odds, you still love them and hope and pray for change. Drawing on his years of counseling experience, Phil Monroe helps you to see beyond the confusion that so often swirls around addiction and into the truths about the struggle and what the road to recovery really looks like. Along the way, he reminds you that God cares deeply for you and for the addict in your life and is working to bring redemption and healing.
Powlison, David. Breaking the Addictive Cycle: Deadly Obsessions or Simple Pleasures
You are bored or stressed or hurt. Something is hard in life and you want a break. What do you grab for that you hope will protect, soothe, and comfort? Whatever it is—shopping, overeating, drinking, drugs—promises relief, but never delivers. Instead, you are left feeling empty, anxious, guilty, and wanting more. In Breaking the Addictive Cycle, David Powlison shares that God made us for rest and pleasure, not for an obsessed and unsatisfied life. Understanding the true pleasure that comes from loving God and enjoying the good gifts He has given us will reorder your thinking and bring you freedom from your obsessions. Take the practical suggestions that Powlison outlines here and see how your pleasures increase and your obsessions decrease.
Shaw, Mark. Hope & Help for Video Game, TV & Internet “Addiction”
Mark Shaw provides insight into the problems of excessive TV, video gaming, and Internet activity from a biblical perspective, and offers a practical plan of action.
Welch, Ed. Choices: Why Do I Do What I Do?
Why did I do that? Behind every choice is a motive—like pleasure, comfort, or control. Motives can be hard to identify and even harder to change. Ed Welch shows all who are perplexed by their own choices that God’s Word alone can transform our motives and move us toward the lasting change we desire. Pointing us to the Bible for practical help, Welch suggests three manageable steps toward change.
Welch, Ed. Crossroads: A Step-by -Step Guide Away from Addiction
Crossroads is designed as a small group study for those struggling with addiction. These ten steps provide a biblical and practical framework for change. Along the way, they will learn to recognize the patterns of addiction, to choose wisdom over foolish desires, and to cling to the hope they have in Jesus, who sets captives free.
Welch, Ed. Freedom from Addiction: Turning from Your Addictive Behavior
You’ve tried to stop more times than you can count. Now you’ve given up. Can someone who can’t “just say no” really change? There is hope—if you’re willing to look deeper than your addictive behavior. Ed Welch helps you face what fuels your addiction and takes you to the heart of what your addiction reveals about you and your relationship with God. You’ll discover your motives and discover that change is possible—one small step at a time.
Welch, Ed. “Just One More”: When Desires Don’t Take No for an Answer
“I hate it. I love it.” Sometimes our desires can be cruel lovers. We think we should be rid of a particular desire, but we feel stuck. “What’s the use of trying to rid my life of this desire?” we ask ourselves. “I’ve tried, but there’s just no way out for me.” Or is there? The problem may be more complicated than just being stuck. Might there be a path to true change? Ed Welch may surprise you with his answer. Along the way, he will introduce you to someone with words of comfort and hope you may never have heard before.
Wilson, Eamon. Opiate-Related Disorders: Helping Those Who Struggle
Is someone you love struggling in the grip of opioid addiction? Is the person you once knew now obscured by a fog of half-truths, unfamiliar behaviors, and outright lies? As the opioid crisis in the United States intensifies, thousands upon thousands of families and friends each year are left wondering what happened to their loved ones, and what, if anything, they can do to help. Eamon Wilson explores the nature of addiction, helping loved ones understand that addiction is at the same time biological, sinful, and painful, but it is also an opportunity for redemption. This understanding informs family members and friends of the various levels of help, healing, and repentance that need to take place in an addict’s life, and it also helps them recognize the common pitfalls of avoidance and over-control that they can stumble into as they respond to their loved one’s destructive choices.
Addictions: Books
Coats, David. Soul Purity: A Workbook for Counselors and Small Groups
Christians are crashing and burning on the runways of life. Through the TV, Internet, cell phones, newspapers, books, and magazines we are bombarded by the world’s temptations and attractions. The response of choosing isolation from the world doesn’t work: we fail to reach the people God has called us to reach, and we find that the problem comes with us in the sinful desires of our hearts. The opposite extreme, becoming like the world, turns Christians into people who are irrelevant. So, how can we build pure lives in this generation? The Word of God has the answers.
Farmer, Andy. Trapped: Getting Free from People, Patterns, and Problems
We all know someone who feels trapped. Maybe that someone is you. With over two decades of counseling experience, Andy Farmer takes his unique gift for simplifying-the-complex and escorts the reader from the trappings of slavery to the soul-satisfying vistas of freedom. If you or someone you care about needs liberation, then fresh hope and practical help await between these pages.
Shaw, Mark. Cross Talking: A Daily Gospel for Transforming Addicts
Cross Talking is a 45-day devotional filled with Scriptures that will help you stay focused on the Word of God as you continue in the transformation process God has begun in your life. Each daily devotion is designed to teach you God’s perspective on “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Shaw, Mark. The Heart of Addiction: A Biblical Perspective
This book makes the distinction between what the world terms a “disease” and what the Bible demonstrates is a life-dominating sin problem. You will find biblical tools to help examine your heart’s motives at the root of your addiction.
Shaw, Mark. Relapse: Biblical Prevention Strategies
Relapse by Dr. Mark Shaw offers a biblical approach to help addicts who have relapsed in their addiction, or those who wish to develop tools to prevent relapse in the future.
Welch, Ed. Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel
A worship disorder: this is how Ed Welch views addictions. “Will we worship our own desires or will we worship the true God?” With this lens, the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than just passages on drunkenness. There we learn the addict’s true condition: like guests at a banquet thrown by “the woman Folly,” he is already in the grave (Proverbs 9:13-18). Can we not escape our addictions? If we’re willing to follow Jesus, the author says that we have “immense hope: hope in God’s forgiving grace, hope in God’s love that is faithful even when we are not, and hope that God can give power so that we are no longer mastered by the addiction.”
