Let God Help
Tag: God
2022 | Day One Twenty-One | Thought for Today
THE MIRACLE OF RECOVERY
Psalms 77:13-14 Everything you do is right, and no other god compares with You. You alone work miracles.
To know God’s way we must seek relationship with Him. His will will be revealed to us as we come to know Him better, and understand His miracle achieving power. Psalms 95:3 says “The Lord is the greatest God, king over all.” Our great King, Creator and Rescuer.
#Thought for Today
Most times God has led me into something new it has been a surprise to me.
All my journey of spiritual growth people have suggested to me “you should do this.” “I think you would be good at ____________” the times I have paid attention, listened to them, and sometimes tried what they have suggested it has all gone pair shaped.
Why?
I have said many times and I believe strongly my faith has always been simple. God has opened doors. Usually doors I would never have tried to open on my own because I felt unequipped to. Doors that when He has opened them I have walked through, and in faith trusted Him to lead me in the right directions on the other side of them.
Proverbs 19:21 says “you can make plans, but the Lords purpose prevails,” To often in recovery we get ahead of where God has placed us. Plan the next step on our own, without including Him and are surprised things don’t work out the way we think they should.
We need to learn as we walk the recovery road to trust God, wait on Him and accept that if it hasn’t happened yet you are probably not ready for it.
2022 | Day Forty-Four | Verse for Today
Psalms 36:5-6 God’s love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.
God’s Love
GOD KEEPS US SAFE WHEN WE RUN TO HIM
Psalm 16:1 Keep me, safe God, I run for dear life to you.
GOD IS GENEROUS IN LOVE – HUGE IN MERCY
Psalm 51:1 Generous in love God, give grace! Huge in mercy – wipe out my bad record.
GOD CAN DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITHOUT BEING A BULLY
Ephesians 3:20 God can do anything you know – far more than you could ever imagine, guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
I could spend all day sharing verses and giving examples of the things beyond my wildest dreams God had done for me. But recovery is about Learning to Live Life and I have a lot of life living to do today.
We sought through PRAYER
Jesus says “keep company with God.” Why? Because He is there listening for all who pray and mean it.
We have all heard the saying ‘Say what you mean and mean what you say!’ Most of us have talked to God because things have not gone according to our agendas. But, God wants to be involved in every area of our lives, in all circumstances. We are encouraged by Jesus in Matthew 6 to “find a secluded place so we won’t be tempted to role-play and we can come before God simply and honestly” and seek His guidance.
There is a connection between what we do and what God does. He depends on us to do our part before He decides His. I believe recovery is a three stage process.
1. RECOVERY – learning and applying the Twelve Steps to our lives in order that He will help us to change and become the ‘new person’ the Bible talks about in 2 Corinthians 5:17
2, REPENTANCE – understanding the mistakes we have made, making amends for them and making a conscious decision not to do them anymore.
3. RELIVING – the life-long spiritual journey of seeking, learning and doing God’s will to fulfil His purpose in our lives and become the people He created us to be.
The first and second stages are our part. God in His wisdom gives us all free will and with our free will comes the choice to either follow or ignore Him. We do that in the recovery process I believe by learning all we can about ourselves, about life and about God in order that we can develop our characters into God approved characters.
It tells us in Luke 11:10 “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in.
Improving our conscious contact with God requires us not only to speak to God but to listen to Him and acting on His instruction to live the best life we can and help others to do the same.
Paul says in Titus 1:2 My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises!
To understand and God’s promises for our lives and apply them to our daily living we need to be in constant communication with Him. One of the most important ways of doing that is through reading and studying ahis Word, which I will share more on next week in week three – step eleven.
The Best Version of Me
Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites. But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him. Philippians 3:17-21
All of us in the process of recovery and right living need people we look up to. This scripture tells us to “keep track of those running this same course, headed for the same goal” For me this has meant in my life being in relationship with two groups of people. Those on the recovery road, looking to change their lives for the better. Learning and applying the steps and processes required to live new lives of sobriety, new lives of changed attitudes, actions and behaviours. And, followers of Jesus Christ seeking to know and to do God’s will in their daily lives. People who not only read and study God’s Word but also apply what it says. People who are in daily relationship with the Holy Spirit and are seeking to make God’s promises their new way of living.
I write this today because I don’t believe it is one or the other. I believe we need both. There is no thing as secular recovery groups or Bible based recovery groups. They are all Spiritual and both have something to teach us and to offer us as we walk this road together with the same goal – to be the best version of ourselves we can possibly be and encourage others to be the same.
One day Christ will come to make us beautiful and whole for many of us I believe He will ask the question “wHY?” “Why didn’t you attend AA, NA or other Twelve Step Groups? or “Why didn’t you attend Bible based recovery groups?”
It says in the scripture above “easy street is dead-end street” Shouldn’t we be using all the tools that He has given us to be the best version of ourselves we can be?
God’s Got You!
“He said to him, “Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.” Luke 17:19
Let us give thanks for the renewal of faith. Many of us knew something of Christian influence in our early days. But we deserted it, and chose to go our own way. At some point as we go through the recovery process we come to the realisation of the importance of God. We begin to grasp hold of His helping hand. He is nearer to us because our sense of up reach is effectively activated. We seek Him with all of our heart. Our enrolment in the school of faith requiring daily attention to simple exercises in educational, spiritual learning.
God communicates through His Word, advising, counselling, teaching. Nourishing our faith and feeding our innermost needs. Sharing our experience, strength and hope with someone else has now become strangely rewarding, and a part of our daily walk of faith.
Let’s remain in the light as God breaks through, revealing himself in love, in mercy and in power. It is easy to heave a sight of Gods love and purpose for us, and then withdraw, or runaway. A sip of living water is not going to fix our defective characters. To quickly people in recovery squander God-given opportunities. Seeking the easier, softer way.
Today I want to encourage all reading this to ‘keep moving forward’ God has got you, He will not drop you. In fact, if you put your faith in Him, seek to find and to do His will in your life you will not believe what He has in store for you.
Stop worrying about how you look.
Matthew 6:27-31 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.
Stop worrying about how you look and start paying attention to how you are acting and reacting to the things God is doing in and through your life. He has got you!
Matthew 5:16 says “Let your light shine in front of others. Then they will see the good things you do. And they will praise your Father who is in heaven.”
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.
*People who know us are watching how we are living, observing the changes in us since entering the recovery process. How we act and react to life can have a big effect on others’ decisions to enter a life of recovery.
A Peaceful Heart
1 John 3:22 He will give us anything we ask. That’s because we obey his commands. We do what pleases him.
Everything has a price. The price of God helping us to change our bad habits and attitudes is our obedience to Him.
Obedience to God leads to peace beyond our understanding. That doesn’t mean our lives will be trouble-free. It does mean through Him we have new ways of dealing with the problems that don’t cause us stress.
It’s good in recovery to take time to remember where we came from. Remember the crisis and stress we lived in before God gave us His peace, It is also good to remember to thank Him for where He is taking us through our obedience to Him.
- As your habits and attitudes change through the process of recovery is there more peace in your heart?
Prayer: Lord give me peace and help me to be patient through the process of recovery as I wait on You
Love confirms Salvation
Romans 4:7 Fortunate are those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Salvation means your sins have been forgiven, the slate has been wiped clean. Forgiven by the Grace of God, not because you deserve it but because He loves you and believes if you are willing to allow Him you can change your attitudes, behaviours and convictions and become a better version of you. That through learning and applying His will to you life you can be blessed.
Salvation means your sins are completely forgiven. Psalms 103:12 As far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.
Salvation means the stain of guilt is gone. Psalms 51:9 Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.
Salvation means you have received God’s mercy. 1 Peter 2:10 From nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.
1 John 4:18 Perfect love drives fear away. Fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love.
God’s perfect love in our lives confirms our salvation.
One of my biggest fears during my addictive years was fear of abandonment. Since high school I have always been involved in a romantic relationship. Some of them unhealthy. Most of them for the wrong reasons.
I did not cope with being alone! Since I have been in recovery I have had one romantic relationship, with my wife.
The difference between my relationship with my wife and the others in my life is acknowledging God’s love and following His guidance in our lives.
Think about this: “Emotions come and go and can’t be controlled so there’s no reason to worry about them. That in the end, people should be judged by their actions since in the end it was actions that defined everyone.” –
When I think back on my past relationships and their eventual ending I realise there end was less about how I felt and more about my actions. Without accountability for our action we get hurt, others get hurt and God is not included in our relationship.
Podcasts
Living Life Recovery
Living Life Recovery is a safe place where people can come, share and investigate the realities of God’s promises for themselves.
We believe that as we investigate God’s promises for our lives and practice the ‘Spiritual Principles of Recovery’ as outlined in ‘God’s Word’ we will find the strength and freedom we need to live productive and peaceful lives.
We welcome anyone who has a sincere desire to change their lives. To rise above the pain and turmoil caused by dependencies and compulsive behaviors their own lives or the lives of a loved one or friend.
Step Five – Week Two
On completion of my list of sinful habits, I will confess them to God and to someone that I trust. Join me this week for week three of Step Five
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