#VerseForToday
We grow spiritually when we learn the importance of loving others
Living Life Recovery is a safe place where people can come and investigate the reality of God’s promises for their life, at there own pace.
We grow spiritually when we learn the importance of loving others
“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.
Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. James 1:17-18
The Bible in James 1:5 says “If you don’t know what you are doing PRAY to the Father because He loves to help.” Help from God is a gift. He calls us to live in freedom and enjoy the beneficial gifts He assigns to us. They are to be used by is for His Glory. and the benefit of others. The privilege of intimate conversation with God makes it plain we are not His slaves, but His children. Free to recover, free to love, free to serve Him, and free to help others be free.
We cannot live sometimes one way and other times another way according to how we feel on any given day.
1 Peter 1:18-19 says “It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood. . He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb.” He died so we could live, lives pleasing to God. Enjoying the gifts cascading down from heaven.
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
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..
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John 1:14
Faith is the opening of the eyes to see the glory of Christ and the affiliation of God.
God, shield me on all sides. Real help comes from You. Your blessings clothe your people! Your glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! In charge of it, all have the final word on everything. At the center of all. Be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!
Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. Romans 14:22
Some things are unlawful, some things are lawful but not good for us, others though lawful are morally wrong. The Bible condemns things that are by nature evil, not just for a set group of people but for everyone.
these things can be wrong because they harm us or their use can harm others. To live life in recovery we need character change. Character change can be realized only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and putting Him where He belongs in our lives. Things that lead us to live unholy character in our lives must be abolished. Nothing condemned by scripture can be acceptable in our behaviour. Jesu came to set us free, to live lives according to His will and His word.
As we progress in the process of giving care of our wills and lives to God we need to take inventory on the things we have been doing that go against the lives God is now leading us into and we need to learn to LET GO of our old sinful nature and behavior and LET GOD transform us into the people He is calling us to be,
“The great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God’s authority over you and presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you—that’s the agenda for rejoicing.” Luke 10:20 #VerseForToday #LivingLifeRecovery
Many times in my spiritual walk I have been tested – many times I have failed but with God’s help, I have always come through. And, in coming through become stronger in my faith and in my life.
You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
Many of us fail to reach our God-given potential because we fail to realize that God lives within us, and His power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and began us on the ‘Road to Recovery’ Take some time today to think about that! To thank God for all He has done, is doing, and will do in your life. Our true potential can only be reached when we realize Who is in control and act accordingly.
God’s claims of always being good are grounded on His claims of being all-loving, all-kindness, and all-faithful. Getting to know Him and all He has done for us, is doing for us, and will do for us is the strongest argument for obedience to His will any of us needs to move forward in recovery and spiritual growth.
How many times as a child are we told when questioning things in our lives “God made it” and been content to believe what we were told.
When we look honestly at where we have been, what we have done, and where we are now how can any of us doubt God’s intervention in our lives? He has kept us safe to reach where we are right now As children He has allowed us enough life experience to realize our need for Him and has offered us the opportunity to love and to serve Him.
Service to God through recovery, giving up our selfish ambitions for His Divine will makes us courageous enough to face the future in the knowledge He cars about us, equips us, and prepares us to become better versions of ourselves in His strength.
2 Timothy 3:17 says “Through the Word, we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”
My hope and prayer today is that everyone reading this will seek and find their S.H.A.P.E. according to His will so that everyone He brings into our spheres of influence will seek to find their S.H.A.P.E and pass on the message of God’s love to all who still suffer from the negative effects of addiction and compulsion..