Psalms 130:5 I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on Him. I have put my hope in His word.
The ‘Gift of Hope’ in recovery is a result of reliance on God, understanding His Word and applying it to every area of our day to day lives.
Proverbs 16:7 When the way you live pleases the Lord, he makes even your enemies live at peace with you.
In the process of recovery, you will always have mockers.
As I have matured in recovery, especially in the early days it is surprising how many people have wanted to take credit for my development. I have often wondered how many of them would still want to take credit if I fell in a heap?
One of the hardest things I had to do in my life is accepting that I only have to please an audience of one. One of the best messages I ever received from God came from a throwaway line by Pastor TD Jakes who said:” What if God wants to do something totally different right now and He wants to do it through you?” I think about that question often.
Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins. See how many enemies I have and how viciously they hate me! Protect me! Rescue my life from them! Do not let me be disgraced, for in You I take refuge. Psalms 25:16-21
Proverbs 13:6 Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin.
When things may not be going as we think they should be going in our lives we may be tempted from memories of ‘the good old days’ to relapse back to out old habits and attitudes. When we feel alone and in deep distress, we need to talk to God, focus on His Ways and trust Him to rescue us from ‘Stinking Thinking.”
Job 31:6 Let God weigh me in honest scales.
Sometimes we allow our emotions to get in the way of our recovery progress.
Over the years I have been in recovery I have seen many people give up because they have a problem with a person or a situation over which they have no control.
In my life, I have given God permission to monitor my character and to address with me anything that exists in it that He does not approve of.
Sometimes that means me making changes in my life I may not like or agree with. It also means my life is a current process of internal change as I grow spiritually. Confession is not a one of event because even though we are in recovery we will still get it wrong sometimes,
In the introduction to the book “The Twelve Gifts of Life Recovery” by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop it talks about God’s gifts of recovery. It says of these gifts “These are not automatic results of “working the program”—they are gifts that may come to us along the way—but by working the program we prepare ourselves to receive the gifts and to know what to do with them. So as you keep working your life recovery program, keep your eyes open for God’s good gifts to come to you along the way.”
Over the next twelve weeks here at Living Life Recovery we would like to explore these “Twelve Gifts of Life Recovery” together. We hope you benefit from the experience.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
What we do affects other and what they do affects us.
Recovery is not a part-time process and God will not be happy with us just doing the right thing some of the time.
That means not only paying attention to ourselves but also paying attention to others. And when we have to challenge them about the wrong things they are doing.
Personal accountability is important in the recovery process. That means obedience to God at all times is important. As our Higher Power, He is in control. We gave Him that position in our recovery and lives and we need to continually monitor our beliefs, actions, and behaviors to ensure they line up with His,
Scripture Reading: Acts 5:17-25
“Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.” Acts 5:20
Step 12: Having gone through these steps and discovering the importance of an individual relationship with God through Jesus, I will try to live according to His principles and to lead others to a personal relationship with Him.
Today I want to think about the message the angel spoke of. A new life that is available to us all. A new life of change.
Change comes to us through faith and the way we obtain faith is through the Word of God. The Bible is full of stories of people who through faith achieved great things. Another reason they achieved great things is that they were open to allowing God to change them. I believe one of the major stumbling blocks in us achieving great things is ‘PEOPLE TODAY ARE TOO PROUD TO ALLOW GOD TO CHANGE THEM. We get too comfortable in what we know and understand and are afraid to try new things. We need to humble ourselves before God.
No-one in this world, to my knowledge, ver achieved God’s will without humility. Jesus in John 13 washed the feet of His disciples, then ordered them to wash each other’s feet so they would learn a lesson in humility. He also wanted them to learn the importance of following his examples In order to change and become the people God wants us to become He expects us to also learn to follow the examples of Jesus. We have to learn to worship and praise Him, to serve Him with all our hearts in confidence and adoration.
God can and will use every one of us. If we let Him. We have to be prepared to change our attitudes and our actions. Wh have to take responsibility for our behavior. we have to face up to life, accept it and decide how God would have us live it differently? God keeps His promises to us. He promises nothing will ever be put in front of us we are unable to overcome with His help. Unless we are willing to open our hearts and lives to Him we have little or no chance of overcoming the problems of this world. He commands us to confidently follow Him. Love, Trust, and obedience to Him secure us a place in His Kingdom. If we are truly His children nothing on this earth will ever hurt us so bad we cannot recover from it.
I believe today I am a fairly confident, competent individual, not because I have any special talent but because I am a child of God and my chief aim in life is to glorify Him and do His work. I know that no matter where I am or what I am doing He is there with me. He guides me and protects me in every situation. I haven’t always felt that way. A few years ago I believed my only purpose in life was to get drunk, take drugs and cause trouble. I went out of my way to destroy relationships I had with other people because I felt I was not worthy of other people’s attention. I didn’t like the person I allowed myself to become through the life I led and I thought the rest of the world didn’t like me either.
Through the Salvation Army and The Bridge Program, I met Jesus and experienced the message of new life first hand. In John 2:28 the Bible tells us to continue in the ways of God, so on the day He appears to us we can face Him with confidence without shame. everything we need He supplies, if He is not then maybe we are seeking the wrong things. in his book ‘Prisoner of hope’ Barry Goode says “Prayer it seems is one of the most difficult pursuits for Christians. Yet it is most necessary and rewarding.” “You can find stones and rocks anywhere.” he says “but if you want something really precious like diamonds, gold or silver it takes time, effort, patience to unearth it.”
Everything God makes, He makes for a purpose. I am sure we are all aware of the verse in the Bible that says “Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.” God brings in His Kingdom by the mustard seed method. When we feel weak, ineffective, and inadequate as long as we have faith, even a minimum of faith God can use it.
When we feel weakest is usually when we are most open to the message of Jesus and the need for change in our lives. “Go stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of new life.” That’s the message the angel delivered to the apostles so long ago.
Today I would lie to say I believe only God knows the full message of new life. Only He knows how much can be achieved through faith in Him. And, the only way for us to find out His plan for us is to step out in faith, To let Him change us and lead us to new life so He can be glorified and we can be reconciled to him through the blood of Jesus.
Proverbs 21:2 Everything a man does might seem right to him. But the Lord knows what he is thinking.
None of us intentionally set out to do the wrong thing. We do what we believe is right. Unfortunately, sometimes it isn’t.
I first made a decision to recover from addiction in 1987. I entered a rehab, I attended A.A. I learned and applied the Twelve Steps according to my understanding to my life. I thought I was doing okay but eventually, I relapsed because God wasn’t involved in the process.
My goals and thought process during that time were very much focused on what I wanted.
Recovery became a reality when I asked God what He wanted and shaped my life around making His reality my reality,
