A Word from Bob: I’ve taken today’s blog post from The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources—which includes 100s of resources on scores of biblical counseling and Christian living topics. The entire 115-page resource document is available here. 

Note: The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources includes additional categories related to other addiction-related topics such as: Pornography, Sexual Addiction, Sexual Sin, and Sexual Purity.

Addiction: Booklets 

Freedom from Addiction: Turning from Your Addictive Behavior, by Ed Welch

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 are willing to look deeper than your addictive behavior. Ed Welch helps you face what fuels your addiction and takes you straight to the heart of what your addiction reveals about you and your relationship with God. You will discover your true motives and discover that true change is possible—one small step at a time.

Breaking the Addictive Cycle: Deadly Obsessions or Simple Pleasures, by David Powlison 

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 David Powlison outlines here and see how your pleasures increase and your obsessions decrease.

“Just One More”: When Desires Don’t Take No for an Answer, by Ed Welch

“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.

When You Love an Addict: Wisdom and Direction, by Phil Monroe

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.

Addictions: Books 

Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel, by Ed Welch

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.” Each chapter concludes with: Practical Theology,” “As You Face Your Own Addictions,” and “As You Help Someone Else.”

The Heart of Addiction: A Biblical Perspective, by Mark Shaw

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.

Cross Talking: A Daily Gospel for Transforming Addicts, by Mark Shaw

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.”

Trapped: Getting Free from People, Patterns, and Problems, by Andy Farmer

We all know someone who feels trapped. Maybe that someone is you. With over two decades of proven 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. 

Soul Purity: A Workbook for Counselors and Small Groups, by David Coats

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.

Join the Conversation 

What additional biblical counseling resources would you recommend on the topic of addiction counseling?