How do I fill myself with God?

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Nightfly

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I was at a picnic today and someone was telling a story of a man who drank, did drugs and was able to quit all that and do a 180 when he replaced emptiness what he was trying to fill with Jesus. I am a binge eater, could be considered having a drug problem an an occasional alcoholic who uses porn. I am at my wits end am desperate to turn my life around. I sin all in private but I am suffering and am not happy. I know people say fill up with God and it will be great. What am I missing?
 
I would strongly suggest picking up a copy of St. Louis de Montfort’s: True Devotion to Mary! Within these amazing pages he describes a devotion about emptying yourself of the spirit of this world and filling yourself with Jesus and Mary.
 
The Book of Ephesians by St. Paul is a very short “book” of the New Testament and I suggest you read it slowly and carefully.

First of all, let’s set our sights on the ultimate goal of achieving holiness in our life. Now, we all struggle with those problems you mention, but Paul in Ephesians or perhaps elsewhere admonishes people to change their thinking as a first step on the path of working out their salvation.

Second, in Ephesians Paul says that we have already received every spiritual blessing so we need to realize that and pray and work on becoming the disciple that Christ wants us to be. You have to concentrate on eliminating those things that are taking the place of God in your life - the things that control you instead of letting God control your life, according to his will.

Perhaps you might benefit by dividing your day into 15-minute segments and work on redeeming those segments of time, distancing yourself from sin and building your confidence that you can continue. Can you live ten minutes of your life without committing a sin of thought, word, or deed? As Paul says in 1 Co, you have to examine your life and separate yourself from “the evil that clings to us.” You might not rid yourself of the temptations themselves right way, but you can start working on developing resistance to those temptations, on developing confidence that you can “walk away” from that temptation.

How long does a temptation last? 5 minutes? OK, well, use that five minutes to turn to prayer, meditate on scripture,

Are you Catholic (I didn’t notice)? Consider the last hymn that is sung in the traditional funeral liturgy of the Church:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

“May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once (a) poor (man), may you have eternal rest.” [Wikipedia quotes]

This is your goal, this is your Christian destiny. right there, you need to be grabbing that eternal rest* right now.* You have to realize that you are in charge of your direction. You need to consider tossing away the things that do not lead to Christ, things that are not worth the long-term goal of eternal rest with God.
 
Your title, Op

YOU don;t

You empty yourself so God has room if He chooses.

He is not a substitute for other things.

He IS.

WHen you stop the other stuff, there will be room ie this is up to YOU

I spent a year getting myself off wrongly prescribed prescription meds. My decision, my effort.

It made room for the Holy Spirit.

I was not expecting that…
 
Nightfly said:
I was at a picnic today and someone was telling a story of a man who drank, did drugs and was able to quit all that and do a 180 when he replaced emptiness what he was trying to fill with Jesus. I am a binge eater, could be considered having a drug problem an an occasional alcoholic who uses porn. I am at my wits end am desperate to turn my life around. I sin all in private but I am suffering and am not happy. I know people say fill up with God and it will be great. What am I missing?
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Go to confession frequently, receive the Lord in the Eucharist after praying much, talk to a priest who can inspire you and give you direction.

The desire you have is good…pray and work to develop new, good habits!
 
It looks like you got loads of good advice. All of the methods people gave you are for the death of or at least the marginalization of the human ego, the self as referred to in the Bible.
Many of the methods people gave you help you to take the focus off the ego by transferring it to God, and to other people. Don’t just sit and wait till you feel filled by the Holy Spirit. Find a way to serve others right away.

Begin a fasting program. Binge eating is driven by the emotional needs of the ego, but why feed the ego if it is not even supposed to be there? By fasting you can start to identify the emotional triggers. Now I am not saying you must do traditional fasting of several days with nothing but water, but you could do something as simple as fasting from sugar. No sugar, sweets, or treats at all for 30 days. You might at the same time wants to cut down on potatoes and grain products since they turn to sugar in the body.
 
Dorothy said:
Go to confession frequently, receive the Lord in the Eucharist after praying much, talk to a priest who can inspire you and give you direction.

The desire you have is good…pray and work to develop new, good habits!
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Good advice. I would only add a retreat of at least day of recollection.
 
Jesus said, ‘‘How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.’’

We cannot really force God to become more apart of our lives. IMHO, the first step is asking Jesus to come deeper into our lives, and asking him to fill us with his Holy Spirit. When we have more of God’s Spirit, his love inside us enables us to lead a holier life.
And then also, as others have said, we ourselves can cooperate more with his grace by going to confession, receiving the Eucharist, praying and reading the Holy Scripture.
 
Thank out for the advice. I have not been living in the spiritual world but have been trying to find answers to my problems on my own. I have read some Ephesians and it is a good reminder.
 
Nightfly said:
Thank out for the advice. I have not been living in the spiritual world but have been trying to find answers to my problems on my own. I have read some Ephesians and it is a good reminder.
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Pray for the grace to go to the sacrament of reconciliation and to Mass, and keep going.

God bless you!
 
Prayer for Self Discipline

Lord, give me the wisdom to see
No good life comes without right discipline.
Give me the grace to impose it upon myself
Lest others do it for me.
Help me to discipline my tongue
That I may be clear rather than clever.
Sincere instead of sarcastic.
Help me to discipline my thinking and actions
To do what is right
And not what is easy
Let me get on with the job on hand
Doing the best I can
And leaving the rest to You.
Amen.

Bible Inspiration: Wisdom 6:17-18

The beginning of Wisdom is a sincere desire
for discipline; concern for discipline is love
of her and loving her means keeping her laws.
 
I would say to use the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession frequently. Confession, at least monthly, mass at least weekly, more if you can. Then the daily rosary.

Also, can you get some sacramentals? Use holy water twice a day, in the morning and at night. Sacramentals serve as reminders. Holy water is a reminder of our baptismal promises.

Can you also get a Miraculous Medal and wear it with you all the time and also a scapular, both would need to be blessed.

Do you have a crucifix at your house? Every Catholic should have a crucifix. My parents used to have one in every room (except the bathroom), and I have done the same (though I have a 1 bedroom apt!).

Do you read scripture? It would be good to read some, even if it’s only 5 min. daily to feed yourself with the word of God.

If you try even just some of these things, I think you will find some of your problems becoming more manageable. It can’t hurt to try, right?
 
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family.
Amen!

Pray for others!
 
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