X

New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

Loving an Addict

Gospel Reflections of Hope and Healing

Alyssa Phillips • March 2015

BUY Print $13.99

BUY eBook (Available in ePub or Kindle) $9.99

Fear. Anger. Shame. Resentment. Despair. If you love someone with an addiction, these are familiar emotions. As the wife of an alcoholic, Alyssa Phillips knows them all too well.

In this collection of 52 devotions, Phillips shares her journey of coming to peace with loving an addict. Like many of us, at a crisis point she turned to the Bible. As she immersed herself in the Gospel stories, she noticed that what she'd heard at 12-step meetings complemented insights she found in the Gospels.

Phillips's authentic reflections and prayers will help you find hope and strength to cope with your challenges.


Alyssa Phillips is a pseudonym. The author’s personal experience with addiction has motivated her to work with the homeless and befriend addicted men and women.

ISBN: 978-0-8358-1369-3

Kindle ISBN: 978-0-8358-1370-9

EPub ISBN: 978-0-8358-1371-6

Imprint: Upper Room

Pub Date: March 2015

Trim Size: 5 in (w) x 7 in (h) x 0.375 in (d)

Page Count: 176

BISAC Categories: RELIGION / Christian Living / Devotional

BISAC1: REL012020

BISAC2:

BISAC3:

Within these meditations, Alyssa Phillips’s devotional use of scripture combined with immersion in 12-step recovery bridge a significant gap for Christians seeking to draw strength from both dimensions of God’s loving activity. She writes authentically and openly of the experience that besets addicts and their families, balanced by the strength and hope found in the Gospels and practiced in recovery. These words exemplify how the darkness of one’s past can be redeemed as a resource for helping others.
—The Rev. Stuart H. Hoke, Th.D. Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology General Theological Seminary, New York City

This book is a must-read for all of us, for one simple reason: All of us are addicts, and we cannot break our addictions alone. Whether our attachments are to a substance or a relationship, to comfort, competition, security, or praise, we are not fully alive while under their control. Loving an Addict is not a book of platitudes or easy answers, thank God, but a lively and honest companion into and through the pain of addiction. The author's hard-won wisdom, together with the wisdom of scripture, helps us to see the universal truth that the addict is not "out there" but "in here." We can learn to love all parts of ourselves. We can become more fully the people God longs for us to be.
—Kayla McClurg inward/outward, an online project of The Church of the Saviour, Washington, DC

Over the past 40 years no spiritual practice has helped me more on my journey with God than keeping company with Jesus in the Gospels. By sharing honestly her experiences of this practice, against the challenging backdrop of learning to love her husband in spiritually healthier ways as he battled alcoholism, Alyssa Phillips both encourages and guides us in praying the Gospels. This book will be helpful to all of us seeking to live faithfully when faced with challenges in our intimate relationships.
—Trevor Hudson Pastoral therapist, speaker, retreat leader Benoni, South Africa

Alyssa Phillips writes a deeply moving account of her journey with a loved one who suffers from addiction issues. For those who believe in Christ, this is a very important book, particularly in Phillips’s use of scripture as a resource to strengthen and guide her along this difficult path.
—Alan R. Burt Author of Blessings of the Burden: Reflections and Lessons in Helping the Homeless