Welcome to Celebrate Recovery…….(Crowd responds), How can we ever get tired of hearing that this is the best place to be? I am a grateful believer in my Higher Power, Jesus Christ, I have been received back into the family of Christ-even though I was the prodigal son. My Father ran to me in grace and forgiveness when I hit rock bottom, and I finally returned home back to the best place to be on any given day. I struggle with codependency, mental health, a short temper, getting stuck in my own mind and my name is Scott.
Can you believe we have found the end of this journey through the 24 lessons, 12 steps, and 8 principles of Celebrate Recovery? Wow, we made it, let’s have a celebration party, get our little paper certificates of completion, grab our last donut and call this a wrap. I mean we have just finished the program right? I want to remind you really quickly that this is not a one and done program to gain some token certificate of completion. I do want to stop and take a breath as we stand at this last lesson, take some time to reflect and evaluate where we are on our own individual road of recovery. Maybe for one person it is their very first time at Celebrate Recovery or for others they have some real time invested in the journey. No matter where we are let’s pause, stop briefly, stand at our crossroads and just thank God as we look back at our progress and our growth in the journey. To thank him for walking with us as we moved forward in our journey instead of taking an easier path. We need to prepare ourselves to make sure we are using the tools we have been given and continue to move forward through the principles and steps and not stay stuck in just one of them. We can easily get stuck in any one of the steps if we are not aiming for the next one; any one of us has the potential to get stuck-or worse jump the tracks all together.
Have you ever been stuck or jumped off the tracks? I remember one time as a young driver my dad, my uncle, and I went hunting up in the foothills, back in ancient times there were no houses up there. I remember my dad telling me to keep the truck straddled on the hillside and the crown, not to get into the muddy ruts, wait about 20 minutes and then begin moving slowly up the road. They were going to walk ahead and wanted the gap to keep any deer from hearing the truck. I had never been in this situation before, and I was overconfident about my own skills, “I got this!” I made it about a half mile up the road and then I found out the hard way how fast life can change. The next thing I know I was sliding off the crown and into the rut, then out of the rut, and over the side of the ravine. “God moment”-The driver side rear tire caught a rock, and I got hung up. The truck is facing down a 50-foot ravine and we were a long way from town. I was in panic mode, I had no tools to help me, I was on my own, and I was scared. Soon dad walked around the corner and saw what was going on. He just shook his head and inspected the situation. Soon he figured out that if he took the winch and hooked it to the only tree he could find, this one lonely tree, that he could pull the truck up the hill with and back onto the trail. That tree cracked, moaned and leaned as dad started pulling the truck out of the ravine. As the truck moved the back end gave and the truck swung down into the ravine. Did I mention dad was in the drivers seat?Soon the tree was holding on tight, the winch growling as hard as it could bearing the weight of the truck, I heard the groan of the four-wheel drive slowly turning the tires, and soon I saw the truck rise out of the ravine. Success, the truck was soon on the road again, no deer that day, but one heck of a story of getting stuck and sliding of the tracks. My dad got a story about how well Warn winches and Jeep J-10 trucks work. And I received a lesson in just how fast your “I got this” and the best well placed plans can go awry. In a mindless superhero sitcom I watch the villain Leonard Snart says, “There are only four rules you need to remember: make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan. Follow my lead and you'll be fine.”
In this moment it is not about making plans, it is about looking at our plans and finding out why they went off the rails to begin with. Let’s look together at seven reasons we can reflect on over our past and see if we got stuck in any way. Then, using this information to help us move forward into the next year as we begin our lessons again, to use these reasons and the upcoming lessons as a way to glean off more information, obtain better tools, and better skills to keep us firmly on the road of recovery. When we are stuck, or feel we are stuck, we then know how to use those tools effectively, properly, and efficiently to help us find greater recovery. Have you used the steps and principles, surrendered yourself, accepted God’s forgiveness, forgiven others (including yourself), faced the risk of change, owned your part, built a support team, and then learned to give away your recovery? Let’s talk about these seven reasons we get stuck a little more in depth.
1. You have not completely worked the previous principle
Perhaps, you are trying to move through the principles too quickly. Slow down! Give God time to work! Just moving forward isn’t always progress. Just like in my story, I am sure I probably wasn’t going slow enough, paying attention enough, and just allowing the 4wheel-lo to work at it most efficient pace, I rushed it. I made progress but I also exceeded the environment I was in which led to a misunderstanding, a wrong way to approach the situation, which then led to a mistake and then to panic. If I had taken time to remember what I had learned before, allowed the equipment to do what it was intended to do, and had a respectable confidence in the process I may not have ended up where I did. Remember, this program is a process too. It’s not about how fast you can go through a step study, how many chips you collect, or even how many step studies you have been through. It is about the quality of the study, the focus to personal detail in your steps, your inventories, your laying your hurts, hang-ups, and habits at the foot of the cross, and your relationship with yourself, God and others . Did you really give it all to God and let him into your heart, admit you were powerless, move out of the insanity of your life? When you got to step 4 did you really dive into the inventory, or did you just blow over it? Did you share it with your sponsor and discuss it? Did you really work your amends, or just say “yeah, yeah, I am sorry for my part, what-ever?!.” How about that daily inventory? Are you giving away your recovery through service? All these lessons, steps, and principles may seem overwhelming at first but when you really take hold of them they become natural, easy, they become muscle memory that you naturally do. As I continue to walk out CR I don’t even think about some of the things I do now, until someone asks me about it. Then I have to stop and actually remember the process, which is why I find it so powerful to repeat the process like we do each year. It keeps it fresh, each person that comes up to this stage, that I talk to in small group, that I mingle with allows me to understand a little bit more about the process from a different viewpoint. I get to stay in step with the family of CR, in fact Galatians 5:25 even says “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit”. When we are in step with our CR family then we can be pretty sure we are in step with The Spirit as well. We are also told to store up our treasures in heaven, not in places that moths can eat, and rust can destroy. I think this is part of the process as well, when you take time to engage with each step with a purpose, you actually accomplish something that has a higher purpose, you collect a wealth of knowledge, achievement, and freedom. You may not always attain the exact goal you set to accomplish, but you will accrue a new way of looking at the world with a new perspective and set of skills. Now you have new ways of looking at the world that is above your own worldly view, it is that which we store in the storehouse in heaven.
Take your time with each principle. Work it to the best of your ability. Remember, many people get stuck on the side of the road while they are trying to find an easier or faster route for “the straight and narrow.” Sometimes this process is not easy, it certainly is not in a straight line, and it is well worth it to dig in, do the work, and not look for the shortcuts that will just accomplish getting through the 12-step or the larger program faster. If we take this idea of not completely working the previous principles, this may have started at the first lesson, and we should really ask ourselves an important question, “did we completely surrender our will and our life to the Lord?” Or did we push too hard, not fully accept the power of the first step, and get ourselves stuck right here?
2. You have not completely surrendered your will and your life to the Lord
Have I completely surrendered my will and life to my Higher Power, Jesus Christ? Every morning, I get out of bed and surrender myself to Him. And about halfway to work as I engage with early morning traffic I take it all back. After the first patient that gives me or my staff a rough time I really want to take it to a worldly view and just deal with the situation at their level. That is the beauty of having a working knowledge of the tools and the muscle memory of CR. Because I have taken the time to really engage with the steps, it becomes natural to do things the right way, to live in the Serenity Prayer, and pull from the storehouse I have in heaven. Remember, there are two parts to Principle 3. The first is to ask Jesus Christ into your heart as your Higher Power, your Lord and Savior. The second is to seek to follow His will for your life in all your decisions. Perhaps you are trusting Jesus with the “big” things, but you still think you can handle the “small” things. I have found as I have given Jesus the big things and begin to live in that freedom, that those smaller things seem really big now. So, in order to continue to live in Christ’s freedom I learn to give away those smaller things to him as well. Now I feel like I am able to take even the smallest of things and turn them to Christ. Here Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us: For good judgment and common sense,... trust in the Lord completely; don’t ever trust in yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.
I can relate to many, if not all, of you when I get cut off in traffic, watching someone feeling overly entitled to drive without consequences or concern to others, or just making poor driving decisions. I have to learn to surrender it to God and move forward in my part of letting go of the things outside of my control. When I worry too much about what they are doing, why they are doing it, I become anxious and angry. It is here that my girlfriend wears out the passenger foot brake in my car. When I take the time to surrender my will to Christ I find peace of mind and then move back into the moment. I heard it this way once “…worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.” When I try to control my life through worrying, through anxiety, I don’t allow God’s will to control my life, and that greatly increases my chance of drifting off the road and getting myself stuck.
This also works on a deeply personal part of my life as well, sometimes it is not external factors that can disrupt my rhythm, sometimes it is my own struggles with codependency, depression, anger and over thinking. Anger is by far the hardest for me especially for those closest to me. When my grandkids are not acting like they are supposed to, I can get pretty explosive because I “forget” that God is in control and that my controlling assertive behavior is what needs to happen to bring them into line. Yes at times that is needed but sometimes my temper, my voice, is not what brings them into line in the long run. It may be for the moment, but like that rock that stopped the truck it is only temporary. I also need to have the strength of God’s will to build a lifeline to them that they can fully trust in when that rock moves and the life gets real. I need to remember that I cannot trust in myself completely, that my complete trust comes through the Lord and through that I find good judgement and common sense in dealing with everyday problems in my life.
I knew my boundaries, I knew myself, I was a strong person that could hold his own against whatever life threw at me. I spent 15 years doing automotive repossessions, investigative work, and even a few bounty hunts. I was tough, I held tight to my beliefs, my strengths, my trust in myself and my equipment, I did not care much for others, so they were not that important to my life. I did not care about someone pulling a gun or knife on me. I did not need God, I did not really know about a recovery group, I just lived in the world as a self-serving person who really enjoyed my job and the money that came with it. I trusted in myself, my judgements, my abilities, and my “I got this.” Years after I came to Christ, then eventually to Celebrate Recovery, I really began to learn how “I got this” got me into a lot of trouble and I began to work the steps and principles. I soon realized that the self-serving person I was, the masks I wore, yes masks, many many masks were just a way for me to hide behind my hurtful armor of my own codependency, depression, suicidal ideas, and of course anger. As I learned to give it to all to God, to surrender my own will….that was the hardest part surrendering my will. I controlled things, I did really well at it too, I was so successful—well semi-successful---okay completely unsuccessful in my control of myself. Then there was the whole matter of trying to control others, but that is for another lesson. But when I learned to give that surrender and control to God I found so much freedom in it, I felt like I could breath again, I felt safe again, I could hear my voice again, I could dream again, and more importantly I could hear what God wanted me to do. I felt a purpose over my life, a drive to aim higher and use the gifts God gave me and wanted me to use. Not to just help me find freedom in recovery but to walk with others in theirs both as a sponsee and as a sponsor.
I would ask you….What part of your life, what masks, are you still holding on to? What areas of your life are you withholding from God? What don’t you trust Him with? What will you leave at the cross for him?
3. You have not accepted Jesus’ work on the cross for your forgiveness
Just because I look at the cross Jesus held himself to and say I accept his gift; does not necessarily mean I have fully accepted it. What if a stranger gave us a gift and we were all excited to receive it and then never opened it? Yes, we have technically accepted the gift, but have we really? Now imagine that after we take the gift, we shred the paper like a cat hyped up on catnip and open that gift. Inside we find a brand-new camera. We take that camera and learn everything we can about it, use it to its full potential. Through that potential and relationship with it we have now become a world-renowned photographer. Like Jesus’s work on the cross and we can walk by and say “whatever,” we can say “I accept it,” or we can stop at the foot of the cross, confess our sins and fully accept Jesus’s free gift of grace for us in its full potential. Christ came to give us a gift of new life and more importantly a new abundant life. When we accept this abundant gift then we can freely live in his word daily, find ways to live out the truth of the Good News, and for us we find a forever family in the body of CR.
As I battled the dragons of my recovery I remember one in particular. I was having a battle in my mind as I sat doing homework for a college class. I was battling my own sinful thoughts of not being good enough to being forgiven by Christ, I mean I was forgiving others as I could, but I could not see how Christ could forgive my sins. I was not thinking about Ephesians 1:7 “So overflowing is his kindness towards us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved.” The verse says, “all of our sins.” Not some of these and some of those, but all of our sins. Period.
As I wrestled with my thoughts I went to the restroom and as I passed the mirror I startled myself. Yes my long flowing hair was a mess….in all seriousness I saw the fiercest dragon I had ever seen looking right back at me. This was the dragon of myself, my own self-doubt and self-judgement…I had already judged myself guilty and sentenced myself to unforgiveness. I did not realize how much I lived to be this dragon. There is a great story of this in the Chronicles of Narnia when Eustace because of his greed and his feelings of hatred leads him to doing the wrong thing and when slept he was transformed into the dragon of his heart. Cs Lewis writes “Sleeping on a dragons hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in heart, he became a dragon himself.” What I realized was my greed was not in wealth but in self-defeat and unforgiveness and I did not accept Jesus’s work on the cross or his forgiveness for myself. A few days and restless nights later I finally accepted that my sin was nothing to Christ and that I needed to live in his light, not in the shadows of my dragons. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong.” Every wrong! Not just some of our wrongs, but all of them! Believe me, your sin isn’t that special, your sin isn’t that different. I think the real question here is “Have you forgiven yourself?” That’s where I see most people, like myself, getting stuck in their recoveries. Then once you are at a place where you have truly forgiven yourself and have reconciled that with your heavenly Father then you are able to learn how to give away that forgiveness to others. That leads us right into our fourth reason we may get stuck.
4. You have not forgiven others who have harmed you
You must let go of the pain of past harm and abuse. Until you are able to release it and forgive it, it will continue to hold you as its prisoner. It has been said that forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentments and removes the handcuffs of hate. It is the power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness. God’s Word promises in 1 Peter 5:10–11 “ After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He personally will pick you up, and set you firmly in place, and make you stronger than ever.”
Do you know that you may need to ask forgiveness from God for blaming God? Let Him off the hook for what others have chosen to do to you. There is God’s will, the devil’s will, and your free will all at work on the Earth. Remember, the harm others did to you was from their free will, not your will or God’s will. I blamed God for a lot of what happened in my last marriage, especially the abuse I endured, and the response I had to being “pushed” into a reactive temper. At one point during the divorce process, I spent a whole day throwing a temper tantrum at God, shaking my fist at him, throwing rocks at him, cussing him out—even making up some new expressive words. When I wore myself out and just sat down I felt God ask me “Are you finally done? Do you have it all out of your system?” I simply responded with “Yes.” “Good, now there is room for me.” It was here I realized just how much God really loved me, how much grace he had for me, how much he had forgiven me for my stuff. I spent time asking God for forgiveness for blaming him because of other people’s actions and decisions towards me.
Through this experience I was now on my own road of learning to forgive others who have harmed me. The church that turned their back on me when I needed them the most, the family that turned their back on me, the wife that abused our marriage, the employer who fired me under false accusations. I had to forgive my own family for their actions against me, and as I learned they were making choices to protect themselves against me because I was unable at the time to see the harm I was doing to them and myself. I began to learn to forgive many of these people and have even made amends with them in the process. There are still a few that have me temporarily stuck here because it is simply unsafe to make those amends, but I have been able to forgive them using Christ as a messenger for me. Remember forgiveness is for our recovery, not theirs. As I work actively in my recovery I also wait patiently for the opportunity to offer amends to those people. This waiting is not being actively stuck but simply allowing God to do what he does best and waiting for him to guide me towards my next walk. To give me time to reflect on my journey and then begin to prepare for the next part of it.
5. You are afraid of the risk in making the necessary change
Are you afraid to get in and get dirty, to dig deep into the hurts, hang ups and habits? I was very afraid of this process just a few short years ago. “And there I saw the dragons of my past, the reasons I was who I was, and I was in my own sight a lowly peasant, and my problems saw me as one too” Numbers 13:33 (Scott’s translation). I soon came to a place that I was not just stuck in my own misery, but I was drowning in it and if something did not change I was not going to make it. I had to take action. I began by walking through the doors of what is now my church home, through that I began to experience the love of others and God’s presence. Through a series of events, I eventually found my way to CR. I hid in the shadows afraid of what other might think of me, of my hurts, hang-ups and bad habits, of what I might think of myself if I faced myself. Who would I be if I weren’t in shame and pain? Over time I was slowly drawn out of the shadows and shown that I was no different than anyone else with hurts, hangups and habits. I was not alone, and my problems were not unique. I began to engage more and more, not usually because of my own will, but by the guidance and push of leaders not allowing me to stay stuck in my stuff . Just as Jesus spoke over the lives of those he came across, these leaders spoke into mine and through that guidance I found my motivation, my will to move forward, my own voice, and my confidence. I began to work the steps and principles and now I have learned to face the risk of making changes that will draw me closer to God’s will in my life. In fact, I am so driven I was called by another leader the “freakin’ energizer bunny” not too long ago. That is part of my story though, I am one that will face a challenge head on now and take risks, take an opportunity to learn, and take criticism when I don’t make the mark. It is okay to aim for a higher mark and occasionally miss, the key is to take the correction needed to refocus, re-aim, and go at it again and again until you make it, then repeat.
It may be fair to say that some people here tonight put off change and procrastinate as long as they can. There can be several reasons for delaying positive change. You may be paralyzed by the fear of failure, you may feel an overwhelming sense of shame for your actions, you may feel unworthy, or any number of other thoughts. All of these are the negative chatterings of your enemy telling you a lie. Remember, falling down doesn’t make you a failure, it’s staying down, making excuses, or being too comfortable in your old ways that makes you one. This is where your faith and trust in Jesus Christ comes into play, are you willing to listen to his will despite your own and do what he says?
Maybe you fear intimacy because of the fear of rejection or being hurt again. It is important to move slowly in a new relationship, taking time to seek God’s will, develop realistic expectations, and establish proper boundaries. My old life was a mess, my old relationships were are a mess, but at least I knew what to expect. And what I found is as soon as I got out of those messy relationships, I spent some time alone, I became lonely, I ran back to Egypt because I knew justified those relationships and knew what to expect. If you really try working the steps and principles on those hurts, hang-ups, or habits, your life will change. Your desire to return to Egypt will fade away and you be drawn to your promised land with Jesus, you will return to Zion like in Psalm 126 “we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.”
I changed jobs, wives, and friends, all in an attempt to find someone or something better, but I never really saw the idea of needing to change myself. When I did realize that I was the issue, not others, is when I had to put in the hard work and risk everything to aim for a higher purpose. What does God’s Word tell us? In Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed.... I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” God continues to say in Hebrews 13:6 “We can say without any doubt or fear: The Lord is my Helper, and I am not afraid of anything that mere man can do to me.”
Since I began to own my own actions I have found a new respect for myself and a willingness to develop a new healthier relationship in my life, one that looks to Christ to lead it in his will. You may resist change (growth) because of the fear of the unknown….ask yourself though are you afraid of the unknown because you are not willing to take a risk on God’s redemptive work, are you fully surrendering everything to God, or are looking at it from your own perspective of not fully owning your actions? The key here was I had to admit my failures and actions, surrender to and fully accept God into my life, be willing to risk what I knew for God wanted in my life, pick myself up, and then move in a new direction with God.
6. You are not willing to “own” your responsibility
None of us are responsible for all the things that have happened to us by others. But we are responsible for the way we react to them. Please remember in the case of any abuse received, in no way is the victim at fault or responsible for the abuse. This was very difficult for me to understand and accept as I came through this part of recovery. My dragons told me I had to do something that made them do those things to me, I had to be a failure, a disappointment, “not man enough to support or please her.” I spent a lot of time and energy living as a victim, blaming myself for what I must have done to provoke others in harming me. I When I finally accepted the fact that their choices and actions were not my fault, that I was not to blame, then I could begin to turn my focus on myself and begin to look at what I was responsible for and the way that I react to things around me. Now I could fully begin the process of step eight of our 12 steps. Step 8 reads as follows: Made a list of all persons who have harmed us and became willing to seek God’s help in forgiving our perpetrators as well as forgiving ourselves. Realize that we have also harmed others and become willing to make amends to them.
My daughter was and is not responsible for the choices I made to be in a relationship with abusive women. She was not responsible for my brokenness and not protecting her as a father should have. Those were and still are my responsibility, I own my actions. I have to take responsibility of that and begin to repair that part of my life, to take ownership, to admit my failures to her, to make amends, and begin a healing process with her. I also have to give her grace for her actions and feelings towards me in this as she was hurt in the process. I have to take time to constantly inventory myself and look for any negative feeling that may create future issues. I continue to lean into Psalm 139:23 “Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover ... if there is any evil in me and guide me in thy everlasting way.”
As I continue to work my steps and principles, “own” my responsibility, make amends for my shortcomings it increases my stability, ability, accountability and responsibility to God. Through this it becomes easier to see where I make those small mistakes, quickly acknowledge them, and make those amends. When I am able to quickly do this it keeps me from not only getting stuck, but from burying myself in the mud of irresponsibility and finding myself back in anger, victimhood, and codependency. I don’t always catch myself when I slip, so I end up being short tempered and use my “dad” voice on my grandkids, or be nippy about things to my girlfriend. When I am short with her she may say “you are being short today,” or “no being mean to the Suzanne.” Now I have to stop and think about what mindset I am in. If I can’t recognize that I am drifting off then I need to be open to asking my friends, accountability partners or sponsor if they see a change in me and accept that response and open conversation. I have given permission to those I trust to be open to me and “call me out” if I seem “short” around them, or if they see me hyper-focusing on my stuff. I have even given my supervisor this permission, she simply asks me “Hey Scott, how’s it going?” to pull me quietly and quickly out of being stuck in my hyper-focus and losing track of my work environment and the needs of my staff.
Now I can be openly examined, tested, and then discover if I need to “own” my responsibility and then make those amends or to forgive others. This can only be done if you have developed an effective and trusted support team. Which leads us to the last reason we may get stuck.
7. You have not developed an effective support team
Do you have a sponsor or an accountability partner? Do you have the phone numbers of others in your small group? Have you volunteered for a 12-Step commitment to your support group? Your support team is more than your bff that just simply agrees with you and goes along with your plans. I once believed a good friend meant having one that would respond to a statement “I am going to burn some bridges tonight…” and they would respond by saying “I’ll bring the matches; we ride at dawn.” Now after working through what CR has to offer, I have people who will stop me, take away the matches, and hold me accountable to those thoughts. Make me defend those thoughts against the truth of God and what I have accomplished in my own recovery. If I still want to burn bridges, maybe what I need to do is write down all those ill thoughts, roll them up into little tubes, put them under some nice dry wood and start a little bonfire. Roast some marshmallows, drink a root beer, and simply enjoy my new life with new friends, new accountability partners, new sponsors, and a new relationship with my higher power.
A great way to build a team of support around you is to say YES to a new way of learning and then giving away your recovery. Take a little risk of making a small change in your life by giving back to CR by simply getting actively involved in the team of CR. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved at Celebrate Recovery:
Dinner and snack team
Table decorations
Welcome Team
Set-up and tear-down
Resources team
Accountability Partners and sponsors
Media team
Much more ...
All you have to do is ask! We are not going to ask you to serve every single Friday night, could you risk one Friday a month to help with dinner, set-up, large group, or clean-up. Do you enjoy playing with technology? Join our media team with sound, visuals, or maybe you are someone who is really good with social media and can help us with getting the word out. It’s often said that the roots of happiness grow deepest in the soil of service. Let’s keep working together to continue to plant seeds of hope in our lives and communities around us. Proverbs 13:20 further tell us “Be with wise men and become wise. Be with evil men and become evil.” We have become a family that can change the world through the freedom we have found through CR. Galatians 5:13 says “Dear brothers, you have been given freedom: not freedom to do wrong, but freedom to love and serve each other.” Let us take the time to praise God when we succeed, and even more importantly let us take time to praise God when we struggle, especially when we find ourselves starting to get stuck. Now you know the seven areas in which we can get bogged down or even stuck in our recoveries. How do I know? Because I have freely shared parts of my own personal road to recovery, as you heard I have visited them all, I have the souvenir refrigerator magnets to prove it.
Take time this week and reflect on your progress, your growth. If you are stuck, talk to your accountability partner, your sponsor, or your small group leader. Find out which of the seven reasons you are hung-up on, and together, implement a plan of action and move ahead on your journey. Just like being in the mud or snow, we may get bogged down, but if we can keep our momentum moving forward we are more likely to get through it than if we hit our brakes and come to a stop. If you get stuck your team will all come with whatever tools you might need to help you out of your mess, but only if you are willing to take the help and do your part in it.
Continue to fully work your steps, surrender daily your will to Christ (and don’t take it back), fully receive the gift that Jesus gave you from the cross, work those inventories so you can live in forgiveness, take that risk for positive change and growth, own your actions and responsibility, and keep engaging with and honoring your support teams. Use your tools of the daily inventory, personal inventory and amends, writing in your journals, reading your Bible, reading the lessons, devotionals, and character studies in the CR Bible, all in higher pursuit of doing Christs will in our lives for something greater than yourself. Aim high, challenge yourself, move out of your comfort zone, Take a risk, build positive supportive relationships, give your recovery away, and then serve others. Keep working it, it works if you work it, and You are worth it!!
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7 REASONS Lesson 25
Y
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Y
“For good judgment and common sense, trust in the Lord completely; don’t ever trust in yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 (TLB)
Y
“But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us… from every wrong.”
1 John 1:9 (TLB)
“So overflowing is his kindness towards us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved.”
Ephesians 1:7 (TLB)
Y
“After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He personally will pick you up, and set you firmly in place and make you stronger than ever.”
1 Peter 5:10-11 (TLB)
Y
“Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed … I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10 (TLB)
“That is why we can say without any doubt or fear, ‘The Lord is my Helper, and I am not afraid of anything that mere man can do to me.”
Hebrews 13:6 (TLB)
Y
“Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover … if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way.”
Psalm 139:23 (GNB)
Y
“Be with wise men and become wise. Be with evil men and become evil.”
Proverbs 13:20 (TLB)
Dear brothers, you have been given freedom: not freedom to do wrong, but freedom to love and serve each another.”
Galatians 5:13 (TLB)
Share each other’s troubles and problems, and so obey our Lord’s command.”
Galatians 6:2 (TLB)
Here is my personal advice from Celebrate Recovery Lesson 25:
Make sure you have truly completed the 12 steps of Celebrate Recovery before moving on to the next thing.
Daily – Surrender your day to the Lord and see where HE wants you to go, where HE wants you to be, and in what ways HE needs you. Submit to His Will and your relationship with Him above all else.
Ensure you have forgiven yourself and anyone on your list that might have been overlooked. You don’t have to speak to them about it if it does not aid your recovery, but let it go. You will be glad that you did not have that resentment inside!
There are risks that come with change, but isn’t it worth it to see how God can impact your life if you trust Him?
Stop playing the “blame game” in recovery. We are focused on our part, not the things that other people did in the past. Leave the judging to God!
Make sure you find good Christian friends who can walk alongside you on this journey. If you haven’t found very many, continue to attend church and Celebrate Recovery meetings, and be open to meeting new people.
If you are going to Celebrate Recovery, you might think you do not belong and wonder why God urged you to give this a try. My encouragement to you is to follow His Will for your life. You might not be there for you, but instead are a blessing to someone else!