Day: 14 January 2020

Discussion Starter #14

14th January 2020 aeboyle 2020, Discussion Starters, January, Living Life Recovery Comments Off on Discussion Starter #14

Permitted Doesn’t Always Mean ‘Good for You’

1 Corinthians 6:12 Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.

I started drinking at the age of 15. I became legally old enough to drink at the age of 18. Once I turned 18 people said, “He’s old enough to drink, let him drink.”

Because of my addictive personality mood altering drugs were not good for me, at any age. Yet once I was legal the world was happy for me to live my life as a drunk and so was I.

I never came to recovery to stop drinking. I came to recovery to discover a way to control my drinking. As a result of the belief I would learn to control my drinking I relapsed a number of times.

Through my times on the ‘merry go round’ and the messing up of my life I finally realised ‘my life was a mess’ and, to stop it being a mess I had to stop using alcohol and drugs as a means of ignoring the mess.

  • When did you realize your life was a mess and out of control?
  • How are those closest to you responding to your being in recovery?

#Know #Understand #Obey

UNDERSTAND YOUR
STARTING POINT
It’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. Romans 12:3

  • Evaluating yourself by the worldly standards of success and achievement can cause you to think too much about your worth in the eyes of others and thus miss your true value in God’s eyes.

FIX YOUR ATTENTION ON GOD
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:2

  • God has good, pleasing, and perfect plans for us. He wants us to be transformed people with renewed minds, living to honor and obey him

KNOWLEDGE ISN’T EVERYTHING
Knowing isn’t everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we’re not all at the same level of understanding in this.
1 Corinthians 8:7

  • Maturity comes from seeking God’s will for our lives and following it.

Prayer: Today God help me to accept abstinence from all mind-altering substances is my only safe path to recovery.

Morning Harmony #14

14th January 2020 aeboyle 2020, January, Morning Harmony, Comments Off on Morning Harmony #14

“Aiming To Be”

John 7:12 Some were saying, “He’s a good man.”

Some people have trouble believing we have really changed. While this may frustrate us and make us angry, we need to remember how our old lifestyle affected them. When drinking and using we brought a great deal of unhappiness into the lives of those we love most. How often did we promise to change our ways and failed? It was only when we turned our lives over to God, we were able to experience the real and lasting change we longed for.

God’s opinion of me us the most important thing in my life. I want to gain His approval more than anything else in this world. I want my life to be a witness of His power to change people like me. I want my life to have stability and consistency. As I lean on God, I want others to be able to count on me.

STOP LISTENING TO OTHER’S OPINIONS OF YOU
Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse; all they do is run off at the mouth. Proverbs 18:2

  • No progress can be made in listening to people who like to hear themselves talk

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH|
If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth–we’re not living what we claim. 1 John 1:6

  • We must put aside our sinful ways of living. To claim that we belong to Him.

HAVE FAITH IN GOD
It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

  • Believing that God exists is only the beginning. God will not settle for mere acknowledgment of His existence. He wants faith that leads to a personal, dynamic relationship with Him

#Opinions #Listening #Hear

Prayer: I pray that I may not pay too much attention to other people’s opinions of me but look to God for His approval. I pray that God will make me dependable so other people can regain trust in me.

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