Joshua 24:15 “If you are unwilling to obey the Lord, then decide today whom you will obey. Will it be the gods of your ancestors beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites here in this land? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Proverbs 16:3 Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed.
Psalms 37:5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him to help you do it.
God is ready, willing and able to help us succeed in the recovery process if we will just put our faith in Him. Matthew 6:30 If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?
Hurry with your answer, God! I’m nearly at the end of my rope. Don’t turn away; don’t ignore me! That would be certain death. If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I’m all ears, all eyes before you. Save me from my enemies, God— you’re my only hope! Teach me how to live to please you, because you’re my God. Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland. Psalm 143:10
When a person has escaped from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then gets tangled up with sin and becomes its slave again, he is worse off than he was before. It would be better if he had never known about Christ at all than to learn of him and then afterward turn his back on the holy commandments that were given to him. There is an old saying that “A dog comes back to what he has vomited, and a pig is washed only to come back and wallow in the mud again.” That is the way it is with those who turn again to their sin.
2 Peter 2:20-22
God would rather we not enter into recovery uncommitted. I can hear all the doubters now saying “I don’t believe that” Boundaries are an important part of the recovery process. The church in Peters day was plagued by people who professed faith in Jesus but altered ‘the truth’ of the gospel to justify their own way of living. Freedom without truth is not freedom it is setting ourselves up for relapse. We can all find someone or something to justify our insanity if we look hard enough.
When I was in rehab in Rockingham (the first one, not the second one.) I learned to make all the right noises, say the right things and appear to be doing all the right things. But I was living a lie. I got so good at ‘talking the talk’ I won the trust of the Director of the rehab and was given volunteer privileges to teach twelve-step groups and show others the way to ‘sobriety’ I remember the Director said to me “I hope I am still around when you really get serious about this.” So maybe he saw something I never and maybe He knew I was still ‘playing at recovery’ I also remember one night he caught a couple of young guys with a pipe for smoking dope in the rehab and said to me “can you find out who they got it off?” How could I tell him it was mine?
Freedom without TRUTH is not freedom. As a result of my bad behavior in that rehab, I eventually relapsed. It took some time, I graduated from the program, shacked up with a girl I met in the rehab and eventually, the untruth and wrong inclinations I had on my heart led me back lower than I was before I started, I don’t believe God led me to rehab the first time for me to fail, nor did He lead me there to teach me a lesson. He led me there to give me an opportunity to change my life. But I choose not to take it and make the most of it.
What opportunities have God given you that you failed to take and make the most of?