It is painful to be a parent to a drug addicted child. There is a way you can pray for your drug addicted child and get answered but there are a few things you need to understand.
God has a system that all prayers we make are subjected to. Understanding how this system works will greatly improve your chances of getting answers when you pray for your drug addicted child.
The Cause of Drug Addiction in your Child
Before you pray for your drug addicted child, it is important to know the cause of the addiction. Doctors investigate the cause of an illness before they treat it; why not do the same with your prayers?
There are three main causes of drug addiction; evil covenants, personal irresponsibility and God’s test.
Drug Addiction as a Result of Evil Covenants
Your child may be addicted to drugs as a result of an evil covenant. These evil covenants may be ancestral or your child may have made them.
The devil deceives many people to get into evil covenants that end up enslaving them in drug addiction.
If your child is addicted to drugs as a result of evil covenants, you need to pray to break the evil covenants. Once the evil covenants are broken, your child will be set free.
The challenge is convincing your child to denounce the evil covenants. Because it is your child that got into the covenants, it is his responsibility to get out.
The best you can do as a parent is to pray for the child to accept to get out of the evil covenant. If your child accepts, you can lead him through the prayers to break evil covenants.
Drug Addiction as a Result of Irresponsibility
Some people are irresponsible with their lives. It is the sad truth. If your child is addicted to drugs because of his own irresponsibility, there is little you can do other than to pray.
As a parent of a child addicted to drugs as a result of irresponsibility, you can pray that God may have mercy on you and ease your pain by causing your child to be responsible.
God will answer your prayer by creating situations that will force your child to rethink his irresponsible behavior.
Drug Addiction as a Test from God
Sometimes God allows your child to get into drugs to test your faith. When God tests you in this manner, He always has a plan to get your child out of the drug addiction.
God may also let your child get into drugs as a preparation for the ministry of helping people affected by drugs. God lets your child go through the pain of drug addiction for him to develop compassion for people who have the same struggle.
Other times God lets your son get into drug addiction so that later on He takes Him out for the glory of His name. God does this so that through the testimony of your child many may come to the faith.
If your child’s drug addiction is a test from God, no matter how hard you pray, God will remain silent. If you have good understanding, God will let you know that it is only a matter of time before He saves your child.
How to Pray for a Drug Addicted Child
While there may be variations in the cause of your child’s drug addiction, these are the general steps you are to take when praying:
1. Repent for Shortcomings in Raising your Child
The first step in praying for your drug addicted child is to repent of your own shortcomings as a parent. Your child’s drug addiction is partly a sign that your parenting was not perfect.
God demands that parents raise their children in His holy ways. Failing to raise children in God’s holy way grieves God.
Before you bombard God with your cries about your child, you need to acknowledge your own faults. This is an act of humility that will prompt God to have mercy on you when you pray for your child.
God understands that parents are human and making mistakes in parenting is common. What He requires is for the parents to acknowledge their mistakes in parenting.
By acknowledging your parenting mistakes, God will take up the role of parenting your child where you failed. Refusing to acknowledge your parenting mistakes will make God resent your prideful prayers.
2. Plead for God’s Mercy for the Child
As a parent, God expects you to have more understanding than your child. As a result, God expects you to pray for things that your child does not know.
In the case of drug addiction, your child may not understand that drug addiction is a sin punishable by eternal death. But as a parent who understands the consequences of drug addiction, God wants you to pray for mercy over your child.
The same way Jesus pleaded with God to have mercy on the soldiers who crucified Him, you are supposed to plead for mercy over your drug addicted child.
God’s mercy works in a situation where there is no legal obligation to do good but God chooses to do good out of His nature.
If you have made mistakes in raising your child, you have no right to demand good behavior from your child but you can plead for mercy from God.
3. Plead for Peace through your Child’s Recovery
The third step in praying for your drug addicted child is to plead for your own peace. Because you are a child of God, you have a right to enjoy His peace.
Your child’s drug addiction has no right to take away your peace. You can ask God to grant you peace by sorting out your child’s drug addiction problem.
God may choose to give you peace by healing your child of the drug addiction or He may give you peace despite your child’s drug addiction problem.
Either way, peace is peace and you will enjoy it.
Accept God’s Answer to your Child’s Drug Addiction Problem
God has the power to heal your child from drug addiction. But He also has a choice not to heal your child. God is wise and whatever He does is for our good.
Therefore, when you pray for your drug addicted child, hope for his healing but if God chooses otherwise, accept His way.
As I have mentioned above, regardless of the answer to your prayer, you will have peace and you will enjoy it. Remember King David begged God to heal the first child he got with Bathsheba but God refused to heal the child and the child died.
After the child died, David accepted God’s justice and moved on. That is the attitude you need when praying to God.
Don’t let your child’s drug addiction problem become an opportunity for the devil to turn you against God. If you feel you have done enough and have not received what you wanted, it is okay to give up on the matter for the benefit of your faith.
But remember praying for your drug addicted child is a good thing to do.
Until next time…Peace!