There is what you do and there is what God does in this process of recovery God’s way. Recovery has divided responsibilities. Your responsibility is the work of recovery to the extent that you are able. God’s responsibility is being committed to you to the extent that he is able. There is what you do to help yourself, and then there is what God does to help you; to empower you beyond what you are able to do. God is always willing. So, the question to be answered is, are you willing?
As you trust God through open lines of communication through prayer, you’re allowing God to move in you. That’s what you do. What God does is give you access into blessing beyond your understanding. God gives you strength to handle what you know you cannot begin to manage in your own strength. The love of God in recovery is so much more than the feeling of being loved. God’s love is about acceptance into his family, given freely without reservation. God’s love is never suspect, but rather affirming and reassuring. You’ll always know to trust it. God’s love fulfills the need and fuels the soul. It is the experience of God’s perfect, fearless love that makes all the difference and makes it all worth it.
“Without the guidance this program gave me, who knows where I would be today. Today, I am happily living out my life. This program laid a foundation that I neglected to build growing up. It gave me real direction and the resources to make clean decisions. My life is in no way perfect. Life still has its problems, but I now can rationally work my way through them.” —Edward S., former client
Through proven strategies identified here, you will acquire tools to cope and respond better to your world as you experience it, confronting present challenges, empowered to let go of the past and move ahead, as wounds are healed by the touch of God’s mercy, restoring quality of life, tethered to the assurance of hope in the experience of what is profound truth.
Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.” John 5:30 (NKJV)
What is so unique about Jesus is that, while he has always had within him all of the authority and deity of the person that is God, there were 33 years living as a human being in the flesh, when he emptied himself of all divine privilege (Philippians 2:6-8). In doing so, Jesus fully participated in the fragile brokenness of the human condition. Jesus needed to depend on God during that time in the same way we need to depend on him today in our condition. Jesus had available to him the authority and power of God with direct access, in the same manner in which you and I have Christ’s authority and power available to us with direct access.
You are encouraged to enter into recovery God’s way, just as Jesus did while fully human, wrought with human temptation, struggle, and intense heartache. Just as Jesus understood it, you need to ADMIT what you’re incapable of; that on your own you’re in trouble and need help. You need to BELIEVE that you can hear from God to judge rightly in your choices. Now be encouraged to COMMIT to your recovery just as Jesus did his; surrendering your will into the will of God; God’s will to bless you with his best for your best. Why would you live any other way? Jesus himself laid out the plans for your redemption; to be reconciled and restored back into right relationship with God; living in the experience of his love.
Since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)
“The only way for the soul to be free is for all the parts of our personhood to be rightly ordered. The deeper freedom — the freedom that the soul needs — is the freedom for becoming the person I was designed to be.” —Dr. John Ortberg
Justice through Forgiveness
Your sin has been removed from your past, present, and future. The stone keeping you in bondage has been rolled away. Resurrection from hopeless to healed is yours. Deliverance from pain into peace is yours. Step out from shame and despair, leaving behind the toxic waste. Step into the awesome aroma that is freedom into new life.
For you and me the gavel of the judge was replaced by the cross of Jesus Christ who took the punishment for my sin. It is Jesus who declares me—and you—innocent of all charges. Jesus sacrificed everything to have relationship with us.
You must understand that God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it—through him. Any man who believes in him is not judged at all. John 3:17 (PHILLIPS)
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:12 (NLT)
When we confess our mistakes, asking God for grace to forgive us, he no longer holds our selfish sin against us; he doesn’t even see it. He extends to the one who is contrite and repentant his mercy since the debt for sin has been paid in full through Christ’s sacrifice. God has blessed us with his Spirit; his divine presence is alive and active within our changed minds; renewed as we give ourselves to this transformative process. God is alive in our souls, guarding feelings and guiding thoughts, directing our way. However, God knows we don’t always appreciate our freedom; drawn by the seductive lure of self-indulgent folly. If we don’t surrender to the promise and process into new life, giving into temptation, we face yet again the logical consequence that comes with selfish, impulsive behavioral choices. We are not immune to the reasonable expectations linked to reckless behavior.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” John 5:14 (NIV)
It’s not that God is judging my behavior, so much as it is Jesus alive within me helping me to think more sensibly before I do something foolish that jeopardizes the freedom experienced through restoration and renewal. In relationship with Jesus, while I know my eternity is secure, to return to behavior connected to pain, comes pain. When temptation comes knocking, captivity is on the other side of the door. So, just as I would be grateful if someone kept me from something bad happening, or about to happen, I am grateful that God does the same for me. I sense when something isn’t write. There is conviction of conscience. It is a detectable warning of clear and present danger. It is also what a healthy relationship is all about.
King David of the Old Testament has been referred to as someone after God’s own heart; someone who’s sins against God included murder and rape. His son Solomon’s sins were like his father’s except repeated far more often. When they confessed their sin to God they experienced forgiveness. If God could forgive those guys, who are we to be beyond the reach of God’s mercy? Who are we to be beyond the depths of God’s redemption?
Does the confession of a serial sinner diminish God’s grace? Absolutely not! When those who have done evil in God’s sight experience mercy, it reveals to you and me just how expensive and expansive the grace of God is. Expensive because it cost God everything. Expansive because it covers every repentant sinner everywhere, for all time. No exceptions! We can therefore be certain that we are forgiven when we confess our sin to God, who sacrificed his son to pay the debt for sin, no matter how much, or how bad.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
“There is more grace in Christ than there is sin in you. It’s your failure that qualifies you for grace. It would be unjust for God not to forgive you.” —Josh Anderson, Pastor
Unjust? Unfair? Wrong? “Illegal” for God not to forgive me? That might sound bizarre but it’s from the Bible. It is in the equation of grace that God has mandated forgiveness for the sinner who confesses wrong doing, along with the self-centered motivation that triggers patterns of selfish behavior. God did not sacrifice his son as the ransom for sin, only to take it back for one reason or another. God’s unmerited favor is impartial and available and accessible to all who elect to receive it by way of faith. We can never repay this immeasurable sacrifice for sin. However, we can be grateful and choose relationship with Jesus, from whom we have received this gift of undeserved mercy.
Capture the full capacity and scope of God’s favor; that he loves us so much that he will forgive the most egregious of sins. God’s grace is not a license to continue self-centered behavior. What grace is, though, is a fountain of healing and a place of refuge from the reach and grip of everything that binds a person in need of mercy and grace.
For you and me the gavel of the judge was replaced by the cross of Jesus Christ who took the punishment for sin. It is Jesus who declares me—and you—innocent of all charges. Jesus sacrificed everything to break our chains and set us free; to have relationship with us.
Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery. Galatians 5:1 (PHILLIPS)
Take delight in desiring God’s best. Nothing produced by worldly pleasure compares to what God wants and has for us. We need not seek approval—validation—from anyone other than God. If God is pleased that’s good enough for me.
Experience new life to the full in relationship with Jesus, who said…
“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 (NIV)
“When I wrestled with God, he brought me to that same place of weakness. This weakness didn’t leave me more vulnerable before my enemies, real or imagined. Instead, it taught me that, even though we all walk with unsteady feet, we can rely on the God who reveals himself directly to us, a God unmasked, a God who lets us grab hold of him in the darkness. In these times of wrestling, we might find ourselves transformed.” —Alie Joy
Allow God to restore you into what you were always meant to be, free to live in the best of what he wants and has for you. Invite God to move in to live in the deep places within you. Lay the full weight of your burden down and then soak yourself in the healing waters of God’s mercy. Get to know God for who he is. God, who has given you life, loves you, and wants a relationship with you that is authentic, permanent and is forever.
The following is an invitational prayer of faith and hope written by someone who has some celebrity, but is also someone who has experienced incredible grief when he lost his son to suicide. He knows what it is to experience profound grief and loss; perhaps wondering at some point where God was when his son needed him most. Yet, Rick Warren understood the necessary process of recovery God’s way.
“Lord, I bring you the things that have imprisoned me, things I’ve been ashamed of, regrets, resentments, and worries. I don’t want to live that way anymore. I want to live a life of freedom. Today, I want to walk through the door of freedom—your Son, Jesus Christ. As much as I know how, I want to follow you. I ask you to come into my life and fill me with your love and your Spirit. Push all the fear out. Push all the pain out. Fill me with a new sense of hope. I don’t want to live in prison anymore. I want to walk through the doors of opportunity that you have planned for me. I’m asking you today to save me and to accept me into your family. Amen.” —Rick Warren
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Written by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
