The purpose of the Celebrate Recovery Ministry at First Baptist is to change the course of our lives, from following selfish ambitions and personal desires which end up causing us so much grief, to knowing and following God's perfect and Christ-centered plan and purpose for our lives which will by necessity lead us out of bondage to our old, painful resentments, hurts, addictions, and habits. Our healing is to be for His glory, not our own satisfaction.


We are once again holding in-person meetings!


Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Recovery Step 4 Exam Prep 3

Introduction
The past two months have been particularly challenging since everyone knows the worst thing that someone struggling with any addiction can do is isolate themselves. Isolation fuels anxiety, selfishness and fear; it also tempts and enables us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. I will admit that there have been a few times in my life when short periods of isolation were helpful, but only if I purposefully sought rest and only for a short time at most. Many doctors are now saying that two months of stay-at-home orders have proven dangerous. Stress and anxiety increased significantly while access to supportive people and coping resources were restricted. The Washington Post released an article saying, “three months into the coronavirus pandemic, the country is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma.” The current research will reveal much over the coming weeks and months, but it is safe to say that an increase in suicides, substance abuse, physical abuse, depression, and overdose deaths have increased due to the months of isolation.

Due to this second crisis, our Celebrate Recovery meetings are once again open. We will meet every Tuesday at 7pm as before. That said, let’s get some recovery and encouragement going.

Exam Prep 3
We’ve moved through the first 3 Recovery Steps.
Step one is basically understanding that you cannot deal with your hurt or habit on your own. Isolation is the worst thing you can do.
Step two is basically understanding that God cares about you and He has the power and desire to help you deal with your issues. God does that by changing you with the Truth, truth about Himself, about yourself, and about your situation.
Step three is choosing to commit all of your life and will to Christ’s care and control. He loves you, not with the superficial, come-and-go kind of love so common today, but with a deep and lasting love.

I’ve recently challenged you to start doing a couple things as Step 4 inventory preparation: 1) read 1 John, Deuteronomy and Romans, 2) pray often as 1 Thessalonians says, “pray without ceasing,” and 3) spend as much time as possible interacting with other members of the Body of Christ, the Church, especially those who understand Biblical addiction recovery.

I’ve talked about God leading Israel through spiritual inventory as He led them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. The Book of Deuteronomy is that spiritual inventory. For starters, God reminds them of how He freed them from their slavery. Along the way they sometimes wanted to go back, especially if things got hard. It was familiar, terrible but familiar. By contrast, their recovery was uncharted territory for them. Also, in Deuteronomy God reminded them of the ups and downs of the recovery journey and all they had learned so far. Sometimes they assumed that once committed to their recovery and with God in control, they would experience no more pain and suffering, only joy and happiness. That is not the case. We still live in a fallen world were mankind creates much hostility, hatred, resentment, abuse, neglect, etc against itself. Besides that, there are consequences to our past addictions. For instance, if I nearly destroy my body with drugs, alcohol, violence and/or sex, my recovery may very well not include physical restoration to my pre-addiction condition. Another example is that if in my addiction I have hurt other people around me, addiction does that, they may not find healing. My recovery may have on-going consequences for someone else, even if I make amends. God will work through such consequences in my life and the lives of those around me as part of the process of recovering our minds and desires.

As I pointed out last week, In Deuteronomy 9:1-2 God said through Moses, “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’” In recovery, troubles, temptations and trials will come, consequences of the addiction may also, but all of those help us learn to trust God all the more. In trusting Him, God breaks the power of addiction and does the hardest work, but you have to cooperate with Him. You have to yield to His will and to do that you need to have some understanding of what His will is. That only comes by studying the Bible and interacting with His people, the Church.

However, it you keep trying to recover on your own you will be doing so with an addicted mind, twisted desires, faulty information and the kind of wisdom that led you into addiction in the first place. That is why so many addicts move from one addiction to another. If alcohol becomes an undeniable problem, the addict works hard to stop but simply switches to some other addictive substance or practice, leading to two or more primary addictions. Think ahead to Joshua and the Conquest, which came just after the inventory of Deuteronomy. Jericho was the first city Israel came upon and it had a huge double wall and was well fortified. How did Israel take it?  By marching around once per day for 6 days, then seven times on the seventh day. They then shouted and the walls fell. Totally a God thing! He did the hard work and He supplied the victory. All Israel had to do was follow His instructions, as strange as they seemed. Ai was the next city. Do you remember what happened there?  Read Joshua 7:1-12.

They sent a very small company to take Ai and got their butts kicked! Frankly, they’d have been defeated if they’d taken the whole army. Why? Because before all of this, God told Israel to take nothing from Jericho once it fell, calling it “accursed” (see Joshua 6:18). But one guy disobeyed and took some of the accursed stuff and buried it in his tent. They didn’t obey and so when the next battle came (Ai), they were trying to take it in their own strength. They utterly failed. God then addressed the problem and the accursed things were destroyed. God will do all the hard work…like taking Jericho. We just need to diligently follow His instructions, be faithful and don’t hold onto any of the “accursed” things.

Deuteronomy 9:4 goes on to tell Israel not to get prideful in their recovery. This is also good instruction for you and me; don’t take credit for what God has done, is doing, or will do. Don’t be so arrogant to think you deserve the credit that belongs to God. Don’t enjoy some success against your enemy, your addiction, hurt, habit, and assume or convince yourself that you’ve got it licked. Doing so only hardens your heart against God and sets you up for serious relapse because you are again trusting yourself instead of Him. Give God the praise which further unites your mind and heart to Him.

Conclusion
Is God leading you into spiritual inventory? Remember where you were so that you can appreciate how He leads you out. It builds your trust in Him and love for Him. The Spiritual Inventory is a not a divine beat-down. It is a healthy reminder not to repeat past rebellion and to be thankful for His rescue. Along the way, God is changing your mind and desires for your good and His glory.

Hope to see you on Tuesday.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark

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