2022 | Day 183 | What the Bible Says
God is always ready to help us when we acknowledge who He is.
Tag: Truth
#VerseForToday
“Don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.” 2 Timothy 1:8-10 MSG
Too often we are afraid to speak up for our beliefs. Fear of rejection or mocking by others stopping us from giving a true witness of what God has done, is doing and promises to do in and through our lives.
God is calling us to be people unafraid of what others think or say about us. People who will enthusiastically share His truth with others and encourage them to get into a personal relationship with Him so they too can experience the truth.
At an AA meeting a number of years ago I shared my story of life transformation through the power of God’s Holy Spirit moving in and through my life. Or I began too. The chair of the meeting stopped me short. And, after the meeting a couple of people came up to me and said “we agree with what you were saying.”
I found myself asking the question of God “did the really, or were they just trying to make me feel better.”
Always speaking the truth in life isn’t always easy. Over the past few weeks I have found myself being careless with the truth because I didn’t want to offend or disagree with others.
Prayer
Just for today Lord help me to always tell the truth as You reveal it to me.
2022 | Day Sixty | Thought for Today
Life is full of change. If you are like me and a creature of habit that is not always easy. Throughout my life, I have lived a lot of places. In adulthood the main reason was to escape from my life, always looking for a fresh start. My fresh start came when I decided I needed recovery and was willing to go to any lengths to achieve it. My life today is nothing like it used to be. That is thanks to my Higher Power, Jesus Christ who I decided to get into a relationship with as a matter of necessity.
MEDITATION
Jesus said, “I’ve come to change everything, turn everything right-side up.” Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, Did you think that because He’s such a nice God, He’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but He’s not soft. In kindness, He takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life change. Before you knew God personally, you were enslaved,. Now that you have found God (or I should say, now that God has found you), how can it be that you want to go back again and become slaves once more?
PRAYER
Just for today Lord, help me to change the things I have been holding off changing so I can become all You have called me to be.
2022 | Day Six | Morning Harmony
Throw yourself into this work for Christ. Think it over. God will make it all plain. Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It’s what you’ve heard all along. Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon.
The Bible is not just a book we need to read. We need to understand it, what it means for us personally, and we need to apply it. When we don’t understand it we need to seek help from those who do. A good way of doing that is to get involved in a small group. Over the years I have been in a number of small groups and found them to be indispensable. Listening to others, and what God is saying to them is always helpful. It has always amazed me how people all around this world can read a passage of God’s Word and receive a different message from the Holy Spirit.
2022 | Day Four | Morning Harmony
God’s firm foundation is as firm as ever, these sentences engraved on the stones: GOD KNOWS WHO BELONGS TO HIM. 2 Timothy 2:19
Some of the people we meet in recovery distort the truth. Some dilute it, others like to spout their own truth. Or some simply want o delete God from the recovery process.
The solid foundation of God’s Word never changes. “He’s the same today as yesterday, My great unchanging friend.”
When we read, meditate on and follow His truth we will know His will for our lives.
2 Timothy 2:20-21 says “In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.”
Paul urged Timothy to be the kind of person God can use for His purpose. As we grow spiritually in the process of recovery, we need to allow God to use us to get His message across to those still suffering the negative effect of their addiction and compulsions.
Staying close to God and keeping His commandments as we grow in His strength and His power as we work through the Twelve Steps of Living Life Recovery needs to become a daily priority in our lives.
Prayer: Just for today Lord show me Your will for my life, learn what I need to learn and apply what I need to apply for You to use me.
2021 | Day 363 | Morning Harmony
My troubles turned out all for the best— they forced me to learn from your textbook. Truth from your mouth means more to me than striking it rich in a gold mine. Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times. It is better to be confronted by the God now than to face a fiery confrontation later. Distress that drives us to God turns us around. Gets us back to His way of thinking and behaving. Jesus said “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life“
Think about when you first came to recovery/ How you felt. How you responded to the process and your own progress in those early day’s. If you are like me God’s Word and personal relationship with the Holy spirit mad all the difference in you attitude, belief and behaviour. You relaised God’s way of Living Life Recovery, though difficult at times and confronting more often than not was a better way fo living than you could have imagined for yourself. You realized by facing the things He placed before you and deealing with them with His help life got better and you were better equipped to live with it. Jesus offers us all a batter way of living than the lives we used to live. He encourages us to live by His example, in His presence so we can grow spiritually on a daily basis and be used by Him to help others to do the same.
PRAYER
Thank you Lord for all you have done in and through my life up to this point. As I apporach this ‘New Beginning’ this new year equip me to keep ‘Moving Forward’ open to being used by You in this mission of introducing others to You and what You8 can and will do for them.
LLR Discussion Starter
“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”
In order to discover God’s purpose for my life, implement it and to improve my relationship with Him, I will spend time daily in prayer, reading the Bible and meditating on it
God wants us to do what is right always. His word is our road map to doing the right things in our thoughts, in our behaviours and in life in general. If you are struggling with a decision, a choice or a direction to go in your life take time to pray about it and read what God’s Word says about it before you act.
I used to work with a guy who used to say “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” For some of us that is how we have lived our lives. Doing what we want to do and dealing with whatever consequences followed.
Discussion Starter Question
Have you started looking at things praying about them and waiting for God to respond before you tackle them unprepared?
Step 6 – Day 3
God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love
Overwhelming GUILT
STEP FIVE:
On completion of my list of sinful habits, I will confess them to God
and to someone that I trust.
BIBLE READING: I’m on the edge of losing it— the pain in my gut keeps burning. I’m ready to tell my story of failure, I’m no longer smug in my sin. My enemies are alive and in action, a lynch mob after my neck. I give out good and get back evil from God-haters who can’t stand a God-lover. Psalms 38:17-20
FOCUS VERSE: Psalms 38:18 I’m ready to tell my story of failure, I’m no longer smug in my sin.
By the mercy and truth of God in Christ Jesus, the power of sin is broken.
Guilt is banished through love and truth; Fear-of-God deflects evil. Proverbs 16:6
Our hearts are affected by the excellence of the Word of God
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. Psalms 19:13
Confessing our sin to another person is an important step in the process of spiritual growth
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. James 5:16
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Overwhelmed by guilt I came to recovery. Not because I wanted to but because I had nowhere else to go. Troubled by the mess I had made of my life I wanted to do better. I didn’t want to keep living the lies and the crisis I existed in daily.
The only way out for me was God. Admitting what I had done wrong to Him was one of the greatest reliefs I have ever experienced in my life. To tell him about things I had never told anyone about, and seek His help in changing them was a saving grace in my recovery journey. I held nothing back because I was aware if I failed again I was finished.
Dramatic but true I was troubled by my sin. The solution to the solution was confession and repentance.
How are you dealing with the guilt?
Prayer: God help me to deal with the guilt. Help me to be honest with You about it and do whatever You prompt me to do to fix it.
JESUS CHRIST – Light of The World
We dare to say these good things about ourselves only because of our great trust in God through Christ, that he will help us to be true to what we say, 2 Corinthians 3:4
God’s touch is on the skies, the heavens, the natural world of color, and beauty because He made it. His touch is on all of us because He made us. But right from the tragic moment of transgression in Eden, He chose to reveal Himself in visitation mode. The light bringer, born in a manger in Bethlehem brought His power to overthrow the powers of darkness that contest our interest. Victorious He stands over death and hell. He stands above everything and we can fall into worshipping things instead of worshipping Him. He draws us into His Kingdom of light and truth. But He leaves the choice to follow or reject Him entirely up to us. Will you choose to follow Him?