The Solution for Emotional Dependency

Some time ago, I received this question: “Someone told methat I am emotionally dependent. Is that like being addicted to someone? Whatis the cure for emotional dependency?”

You may be emotionally dependent, obsessive, or “addicted”to someone, but you should not think in these terms. As soon as you defineyourself that way, you have hindered the cure. You end up focusing on theproblem. Here is the solution. It requires some homework.

·      Think of yourself as a child of God.

·       “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly lifethrough our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2Peter 1:3). Believe it.

·       Realize where you are in Jesus Christ. Read Ephesians 1:13 throughchapter 3 and Colossians 1 and 2. Do not think about doing. Think about being.Look at what these passages say you are in Christ.

·       Read the Gospel of John. Mark every reference about God the Father.See what the text says about the Father. Thank God.

·       Reach out to the unlovely, not for your good, but for theirs. “ThenJesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon ordinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives,or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will berepaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor,the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will beblessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrectionof the righteous’” (Luke 14:12-14).

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships