Recovery

I took a recovery class through our church last year and I believe it was one of the best things I have ever done. At the beginning of the class, we all had to verbalize what we were there to "recover" from. Mine was: I am looking to lay the past to rest, clean the skeletons out of the closet, and then move on with whatever the Lord had planned for me.

As I went through the class I found out how messed up I really was. I learned a lot about me and about how to "break the addiction", no matter what the addiction is. You must remove yourself from the situation that contains your particular addiction.

I'll use alcoholic for my example because most of us know at least one, not because it is any worse than any other self destructive addiction. They ALL can kill in one way or another.

If you're an alcoholic and you've decided to lay your personal demon to rest, you must live a different life than what you did before. You can't go run around with the same guys and go to the same places and watch them drink and have them offer it to you and ever expect to get away from that demon. You have to change your habits, your surroundings, and yes, sometimes even your friends. Now real friends will respect your decision to change, and understand what you are having to do differently to win the battle over your addiction. Some of your "friends" will not. Those people are not your real friends any way. A real friend is going to want to see you succeed and not hope you'll continue to wallow in your addiction with them. Some friends will say they're helping when they're only feeding the problem. Beware! It is that well intentioned friend that can do the most damage. They are not like the ones who call you names for wanting to change and really let you know they're not interested in helping. Instead they say (and often think) they are helping. ex: I will show you that you can have just one or two drinks and stop. You'll be fine. I'll help you. That is deceptively destructive, and worst of all, they have the best intentions at heart. They don't mean to push you back off the cliff again, they just do.

But there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother that can facilitate change for you.

Now my first (and only) recommendation on life change is to accept Christ into your life (He's that friend). I have never seen anything work like that. He will change you from the inside out and He will provide instructions on your next step and the next and so on. Trying to change yourself just because you woke up with a really bad hangover is not the most effective way to change. That would be like a tiger waking up one day and deciding it wanted to be spotted instead of striped. Through the guidance and instruction of God's word and the Holy Spirit, you will know what is right and wrong. If you want to justify that something is right to yourself, after having Christ in your life, it's real easy; ask Him! He will let you know that what you're doing is right or wrong. JUST ASK HIM!

Now he gave us a wonderful collection of love letters to reveal to us who He is and what He views as acceptable and unacceptable so we would have some guidelines to function by. If you think your addiction is ok, ask Him, He'll let you know. And if you really want to change, ask Him, He'll come in to your life and make changes that you won't even be able to believe you were capable of.

So stop struggling alone! Give your life to God and let Him help you change......for good!

God I would like to thank You for tha changes You have facilitated in my life! I truly couldn't have done it without You and those You provided for me, to come alond side me. Thank You!