There’s an ungodly tie between you and another when there’s an enabling relationship.
It could feel like you have a chain around your heart tied to the other person.
It’s when you consciously or unconsciously, allow another person’s harmful or negative behavior to continue.
Examples:
1. Substance abuse enabling:
A person in a relationship with someone struggling with substance abuse might cover up for their partner’s addiction by making excuses for their behavior, providing money for drugs or alcohol, or even using substances with them, thereby perpetuating the destructive habit.
2. Financial enabling:
A family member who continually bails out another family member from financial troubles without encouraging them to learn responsible money management might enable irresponsible spending habits or financial dependence.
3. Emotional enabling:
Constantly accommodating someone’s emotional outbursts or unhealthy coping mechanisms without encouraging them to seek help or learn better ways to manage their emotions can enable and reinforce these negative patterns.
4. Overprotective enabling:
A parent who shields their child excessively from the consequences of their actions, such as repeatedly intervening to solve their problems or shielding them from natural consequences, might hinder the child’s personal growth and independence.
5. Work enabling:
Covering for a colleague’s consistently poor performance or mistakes at work without encouraging them to improve or face the consequences can enable a lack of accountability and hinder professional development.
In each example, the enabling behavior, while often well-intentioned, perpetuates the underlying issue and prevents the person from taking responsibility or seeking help to address their challenges.
Breaking the cycle of enabling often requires setting boundaries, encouraging accountability, and encouraging the person to seek appropriate support or help to address the underlying issues.
If the person you are enabling is not open to change, there is a way to pray for them. Ask Jesus how best to pray. He cares deeply for you and the other person. He brings freedom.
If you are the person who is stuck in enabling another person’s behaviour, ask Jesus what is the unmet need within your own heart.
Ask Jesus how He’d like to heal that unmet need within your heart.
Follow His voice. He came to bring you life to the full.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!
There is hope.
Following and Trusting : Encountering God Out of the Box 
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