God is With Us
Going through times of difficulty will either cause us to drown or force us to grow stronger.
If we go in your own strength, we are more likely to drown.
If you invite God to go with us, He will protect is.
#Strength
Going through times of difficulty will either cause us to drown or force us to grow stronger.
If we go in your own strength, we are more likely to drown.
If you invite God to go with us, He will protect is.
#Strength
Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. . . . Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. We have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. #Right #Rest #Peace
Psalms 127:2 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
In this godless world, you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! Jesus has conquered the world. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. Every
Jesus said “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down–each word dependable and accurate.” Recovery is not always easy. But it is always better than the other option. #Relaps #Continue #Experience #Conquer
A man went into a chemist and asked the chemist “do you have anything to stop hiccups?” The chemist came around from behind the counter and slapped the man, hard. Shocked and confused the man yelled, “what are you doing?” “You don’t have hiccups anymore do you?” asked the chemist. ‘No’ said the man “But my wife out in the car still has them”
Right-minded people in our lives sometimes fail to understand the source of our problems.
In John 13:7 Jesus said, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.” Seeing Jesus behave like a slave must have confused Peter. He still did not understand Jesus’ teaching that to be a leader, a person must be a servant. In the process of recovery, we often don’t understand what is happening to us and going on around us. It feels uncomfortable and at times we think more painful and troublesome than returning to our old habits and ways. But, with time, and distance between our last drink or drug the fog clears. Romans 8:12 tells us we have no obligations to our old sinful nature to do what it begs us to do. We need to learn to rely on God, ask Him to help us to understand the process we are going through, the best solutions to our problems and equip us to overcome the hurdles of life.
1 Corinthians 10:13 Remember this—the wrong desires that come into your life aren’t anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation’s power so that you can bear up patiently against it. #Understand #Trust #Rely #Overcome
Ephesians 1:23 The church is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
Matthew 16:18 This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.
Mark 16:15 He said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all.
Mark 1:15 “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.”
I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action. ‘Play actors’ acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. In prayer, there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire. When you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive them. Only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.
The moment we get tired of waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone has access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language. Prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. What I want most is for men and women to pray–not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.
I pray to God–my life a prayer– and wait for what he’ll say and do. #Challenging #Forgive #Respond #Remember #Pray
2 Timothy 2:15 says “Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.” To teach the Word you need to understand the Word. To understand the Word, you need to read the Word, meditate on the Word and talk to God about the Word. Step Eleven says “We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.’ Improving our conscious contact with God requires deliberate action on our part. We have to set aside time to talk to God, listen to God, seek His will and plan how we are going to achieve it with His help.
“The spiritual space we’re trying to find and maintain in meditation practice is the sacred place in each of us.” ― Melody Beattie
The purpose of meditation in recovery is to understand ourselves better, know God’s direction for our lives and seek His power to make His will our new normal way of living. #StepEleven #Concentrate #Meditate #TalkToGod
God says “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out–plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, I can’t impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple. You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching but will fill up on spiritual junk food–catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you–keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant. #Living #Love #Work #Good
Paul lived for two years in his rented house. He welcomed everyone who came to visit. He urgently presented all matters of the kingdom of God. He explained everything about Jesus Christ. His door was always open. In Christ, we come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this because of our faith in Christ. Since we have confidence in the new promise, we speak very boldly. We can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” #Live #Open #Freedom #Faith