Can you pray for my friend who is on drugs?
Question:
I'm searching for all the churches of Christ on Google because I'm searching for prayer. My friend is really struggling. He grew up in an atheistic home, and it's abusive. His parents just yell at him all day long, and they nag a lot. They just tell him everything he is doing wrong and make him feel worthless. They've told him numerous times that they wish he wasn't their son. He's tried to commit suicide so many times and has been sent to a mental hospital many times. He is struggling with a crystal meth addiction and he is wrecking his body and his life. He claims to not believe in God, but he persecutes Christ so much. When he is broken down, he says stuff like "I don't have Christ in my life" and I've been praying for him for so long.
My request is that he starts to see God's love for him and that He is in fact real. I ask that he would come to Christ, and soon if God permits and that he would become an amazing man of God. I just ask that God would put a desire on his heart for Him, and that he would start turning to the Bible for help, and that he would overcome his drug addiction. and that he would come to church with me, and when he does that God would reach something inside and draw him to Him.
And if you could please pray for me too, I'm getting really tired. I'm praying for almost two years, and I'm starting to wonder if God is ever going to answer. If you could pray that my friend sees my shining light -- and I'm really the only light there is in his life, and he can't lose that. If you could please share this prayer request with your elders, deacons, and church I would be eternally grateful.
May God bless you.
Answer:
Having dealt with and continuing to deal with several people who have used meth, I can understand your difficulty and struggles. It is sad to see someone with so much potential ruin his life. But one thing I don't think you see is that God has been answering your prayer, but since that answer allows your friend free choice, you haven't seen it.
Most drug users, and your friend is typical, use drugs to void perceived problems. While they are high they don't have to think about them. While they are high the pain in their life feels numb. It isn't that the problems go away or the pain isn't present, but that the drugs make them feel as if none of it matters. What they don't realize is that problems remain, the pain continues, and things get worse because they are being avoided.
Meth is a particularly nasty drug because it is immediately addictive. And its addictiveness involves the sexual centers of the brain. While high the person experiences an intense state of sexual arousal that lasts for a day or more. But what the person doesn't realize is that they are burning out the very feelings he is pursuing. The body isn't designed to sustain sexual arousal for long periods of time. It needs time to recover, which the drug doesn't give him. After a while, he won't be able to experience arousal without the drug and for a man, it becomes an irritation that drives him to distraction. He ends up feeling that Meth is his only solution while it continues to damage him further.
Another sad state of affairs with drug users is that most treatment centers use drugs to ease the withdrawal symptoms from drugs. But these drugs tend to make a person feel disconnected from himself. Many turn back to drugs to escape the feeling. About the only truly successful approach is a complete withdrawal from all drugs. It means life will be miserable for a month or more, but on the other end, he will begin thinking clearer. But it will take almost a year without drugs before he comes close to being a normal human being. Meanwhile, he must be protected from himself so he doesn't relapse into using drugs. Worse, even after remaining sober for years, it will only take one time to put him back into the depths of addiction again.
At the moment, your friend can't make a commitment to live for Christ. Drugs rule his world and his life. The best that you can do for him is to insist that he go into a long-term (6 months to a year) treatment program. During that time he will be monitored to keep him off of drugs and he will have a chance to learn how to handle the common everyday annoyances which everyone faces without running to drugs to avoid them. That takes time and effort that one person cannot give.
What I mean by answered prayers is that your friend is still here. He still can make a choice. He has been given many opportunities to leave the drugs and more will be available. If he fails, it will not be God's fault; it will be because he refused to change. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).
That is something you need to see as well. You can't make another person do what is right and sensible. You can offer an opportunity and you can give encouragement, but the choice always remains his own. What you can do involves your own choices. You can't help him avoid the problems drugs are causing in his life. That just enables him to continue longer. You have to lay down solid rules. You'll help when he goes in the direction of living a drug-free life. You're unavailable for any help while he continues to use drugs. Period.
I'm glad you care and I'll pray for your strength of character and his humbleness of mind. But don't burn yourself out over his problem.
