There will be no Celebrate Recovery on Friday, April 13.
However, we will have a meeting on April 27 which had been a scheduled day off.
Having started again with Step 1 in January, we are now in Step 4.
I have found over the years that many who begin the 12 Steps, stop in Step 4. This is tragic, as their recovery also stops and addictive behaviors and desires renew their stranglehold. There are many reasons people stop at Step 4, and many of those relate back to a misunderstanding of that Step.
I have found Step 4 to be exciting and life-changing, not drudgery or discouraging. Around here we understand Step 4 to be an examination of truth, led by the Holy Spirit. I spent many years being deceived and deceiving myself so that over time much of what I understood was false and my actions were very much dependent upon my faulty understanding. Let me testify that all of that mess could not be unraveled by my faulty thinking. How can right actions, words, thoughts and desires come out of faulty thinking and beliefs? They cannot. Only the all-knowing, loving, and patient God and Creator of the Universe can untangle that kind of mess by revealing truth.
There are many today who question there is any real truth or say that truth is determined by each individual. Such beliefs prove themselves to be false as those definitions of truth lead to an anything-goes chaos. God is the only One who can reveal to you the truth of who He is (He tells us much about who He is through His Word, the Bible). He is the only One who can reveal to you the truth of you and your situation, and He is very patient and loving in doing so. Thus, God is the only One who can lead you out of addictive thoughts, actions,words, and desires into freedom from those things. He is the only One who can heal the hurts you have suffered and replace the pain with peace and even joy from knowing Him.
All of that can only begin once we realize we cannot fix the addictions and resentments that haunt and control us, realize only God the Father, Son, and Spirit can heal through truth that is taught and applied in care and love, and decide to submit to the care of Jesus Christ and yield our life and will to His. Then He will begin the process of your recovery into a new life as a new creation in Him.
That is the exciting truth of Step 4!
Hope to see you at Celebrate Recovery.
