The Life Recovery Workbook for Sexual Integrity

Book excerpt: Begin the journey of recovery from sexual addiction! Let’s start now on a twelve-step path that will lead us out of inappropriate sexual behaviors into the restoration of life. In the Life Recovery Workbook for Sexual Integrity, discover real-life stories of fellow travelers, great questions for individual or group discussion, and a Bible-centered approach to freedom. Twelve beautiful blessings await after our hard work on the journey of recovery from sexual addiction. Step 1: Open our hearts to God’s power to free us from the grip of unhealthy sexual behaviors. “O God, please strengthen me just one more time.” (Judges 16:28) Step 2: Allow God to restore our sexual sanity. “Who can bring purity out of an impure person?” (Job 14:4) Step 3: Submit to God in order to be freed from the bondage of life-stealing addiction. “If you give up your life for me, you will find it.” (Matthew 10:39) Step 4: Self-examination leads us out of addiction. “You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.” (2 Corinthians 7:11) Step 5: Experience the healing that begins with mutual confession. “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16) Step 6: Get ready for God to heal us from addictive sexual behaviors. “You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” (Psalm 51:17) Step 7: Invite God to remove our sexual shortcomings. “I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.” (Isaiah 57:15) Step 8: Create a list of people our unwise sexual behavior adversely affected. “Now, however, it is time to forgive.” (2 Corinthians 2:7) Step 9: Restore relationships damaged by our sexual sins and experience a clean slate. “But then they turn from their sins and do what is just and right.” (Ezekiel 33:14) Step 10: Review daily the defects in us that hinder healthy life with God and others. “So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives.” (James 1:21) Step 11: Grow closer to God through prayer and meditation. “Teach me how to live, O Lord.” (Psalm 27:11) Step 12: Bless others with the blessing of healing from habitual sexual sin. “He will give a crown of beauty for ashes.” (Isaiah 61:3) STEPHEN ARTERBURN is the founder of New Life Ministries—the nation’s largest faith-based broadcast, counseling, and treatment ministry—and host of the nationally syndicated New Life Live! daily radio program. He is a Gold Medallion–winning author and co-editor of The Life Recovery Bible. DAVID STOOP, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of The Center for Family Therapy in Newport Beach, California. He also serves on the executive board of the American Association of Christian Counselors. David is a Gold Medallion–winning author and co-editor of The Life Recovery Bible.