2022 | Day 148 | Discussion Starter
Responsible Trust in God requires seeking His will and His power to carry it out.
Tag: Purpose
2022 | Day Eighty-Six | Verse for Today
I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. Philippians 1:5-6
Inspiring Gratitude
Carrying out social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of the poor. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. Proclaiming the Message: telling others who God is and what He has done in and through your lives is an important part of the recovery process. One of my favourite experiences in the Salvation Army services was Testimony Time. Where people from the congregation had opportunity to tell others what God was doing in their lives at whatever step of the Spiritual Growth process they were at. One of my favourite times in recovery meetings is the Sharing Time. Where individuals get a chance to do the same thing. Our stories disclose in a general way – What we used to be like – What happened and What we are like now.
God has a plan and a purpose for you and a plan and a purpose for me. and, I thank Him today our plans got to intervene. For that we should give abundant and bountiful thanksgiving too Him..
2022 | Day Sixty-One | Thought for Today
Recovery requires commitment to seeking God and his purpose for our lives. In rehab in 1989 I had a counsellor who challenged me. What he said was ‘See that bus out there in the driveway? Every time it leaves this property make sure you are on iy. If it goes to A.A. you go to A.A. If it goes to Church, you go to Church and if it goes shopping you go shopping.” I never understood his logic but I did what he suggested. The result was my time in rehab went quickly, I interacted with people I wouldn’t normally interact with and I learned new things about myself and about life,
Discovering God’s purpose for our lives involves doing things we wouldn’t normally do to experience things we have never experienced.
MEDITATION God made everything with a place and purpose. We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but His purpose always prevails. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future, kept taut by hope. This Message doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. My purpose in writing this is simple: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this reality and not an illusion.
PRAYER Just for today God let me step outside my comfort zone. Seek to find and to follow Your purpose for my life.
2022 | Day Seven | Verse for Today
Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good. Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place. God made everything with a place and purpose; even the wicked are included—but for judgment. God can’t stomach arrogance or pretense; believe me, he’ll put those upstarts in their place. Guilt is banished through love and truth; When God approves of your life, even your enemies will end up shaking your hand. Proverbs 16:2-7
Rough enough is good enough! I used to say it all the time. Coming to recovery has changed my approach to the things I do and say. Some of you may have noticed sometimes posts go up on this website with mistakes. And, when I notice them are changed, None of us are perfect, we make mistakes. I had a boss once who said to me “Don’t come into my office with problems. I have heaps of problems. Come in with solutions.” So before taking anything to him I made sure I had thouht of two or three possible solutions and we decided together the way forward.
- God probes for waht is good and He expects us to look for solutions with which we can work together to move forward.
- God can’t stomach pretence there is saying in A.A. fake it till you make it. Which I disagree with I don’t think God wants any of us to pretend everything is okay if it isn’t. The Twelve steps encourage us to find our problems – face our problems and – fix our problems with God’s help. We can’t do that by saying everything is okay when it isn’t.
- Put God in charge guilt is banished through love and truth. To overcome the guilt associated with our character defects, mistakes and problems we need help. Human help we have tried and it hasn’t worked. So we need God’s help and the only way God will hellp is when we put Him in His rightful place of our recovery process.
Step Twelve Week One
Sorry folks! Due to a large storm rain, wind, thunder lightning podcast won’t be heard tonight. Below is the pdf handout
again, I apologize. but I can hardly hear myself let alone do a podcast.
Proverbs 19:21 We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God’s purpose prevails.
I was looking forward to sharing,
Looking For God’s Love
God’s eye is on those who respect him, the ones who are looking for his love. Psalms 33:18
God Rejoices when we follow His will, live our lives in every area to His plan and purpose. Now I know that is not easy but that is why it is called ‘Spiritual Growth’ None of us got to the point in our lives overnight where we thought ‘I think I will follow God’ It was a process of trial and error where we tried things and sometimes failed, but we never stopped trying.
It says in 1 John 2:9 Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark.
- LOVING GOD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT IN THE BIBLE
- LOVE NEVER QUITS
- GOD’S LOVE IS BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING
- GOD’S LOVE IN US IDENTIFIES US AS HIS
One of the identifications of being on the right track in recovery is how we treat and react to others. Through us God wants to love others who still suffer from the negative effects of addiction and compulsion. A very wise mentor of mine told me many years ago “Archie because of who you are. because of your experience, strength, and hope you have been given the ability to reach people that won’t even talk to me.” God’s love not only sets us free it prepares us to be used by him to make a difference in the lives of others.
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.
Step Eleven ~ Week One
What is God’s Purpose for you?
Jesus said, “I glorified you on earth By completing down to the last detail What you assigned me to do.“ John 17:4
The Fatherhood of God is our best refuge, our chief purpose in life must be to glorify Him, recovery in our own strength impossible. In His grace all things are possible, nothing too difficult for us to overcome. Jesus recognised the need to complete God’s as assigned by Him, down to the last detail. We too, if we want to succeed in the process of becoming all He is calling us to be must recognize His purpose in our daily walk. put our faith in Him, do and go where He prompts us to, even when we don’t fully understand.
God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible. 2 Timothy 1:7
We are called to share what God has done, is doing, and promises to do in and through our lives with others. Recovery is a great gift. One of the things I am not sold on in the A.A. concept of recovery is anonymity. The Bible talks about ‘letting your light shine’ the Twelve Steps speak about ‘Reaching the suffering’ God did not send Jesus to die for me in order for me to keep it a secret. I don’t believe it is in His purpose for any of us to keep quiet while others are suffering addictions and compulsions He is calling us to help Him rescue them from.
Time for Recovery!
You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
Our hope and our future are dependent on our willingness to chase after a personal relationship with the One True Higher Power – Jesus Christ and discovering His purpose for our lives.
God is not looking for a lukewarm recovery! He is looking for commitment, 100 %. Many people come and go when it comes to recovery. They start off uncertain and when they discover it works are set on fire in pursuit of it. Then, when the going gets tough, for whatever reason they give up and go back to their old familiar ways.
I have been in recovery for many years. At times it has been heartbreaking to see people wanting to do the right thing be put on a pedestal by others. Given responsibility, they were not yet equipped to handle and fall in a heap. Not equipped because they have not been given time to discover God and His purpose for them. We all have different spiritual gifts, we all have different abilities. What others see as our calling may not be what God sees as our calling.
This verse comes right after the verses that say in Jeremiah 29 ” I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.“
Can I please ask everyone going through the process of recovery to take your time. ‘TIME’ is one of the most important ingredients in recovery. It is not a race and I am confident God in His wisdom is not calling all of us to immediate service. Take time, talk to Him, listen to Him, and get to know Him. In His time He will reveal to you what He is calling you to do and to be and He will equip you for the task,