Although it can be emotionally taxing to attend Celebrate Recovery every week, it is definitely a healthy activity to “keep me on alert” for Satan’s attacks especially in areas where I have struggled for years like unfaithfulness and alcohol. I am reading through the Gospels this year as part of “Join the Journey” through Watermark Community Church. In Matthew 2:13, God uses an angel to warn Joseph of Herod’s intention to destroy Jesus. God will also protect us from Satan’s attempts to destroy us. We also have a responsibility to stay on the alert against Satan’s temptations. 1 Peter 5:8 says
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
This time of year is always difficult for me in the area of alcohol temptation: more social events, traditions, new years … Satan would love for me to believe the lie that “I can handle it” I stay on the alert by volunteering at Celebrate Recovery and admitting to others that I am struggling.
One thing I continue to be guilty of in my life is addiction hopping. You must be intentional about replacing old bad habits with new good habits. Today in a brink of struggling for about a week now with just discontentment, I and went partook in some shopping therapy. I also still struggle with emotional eating at times. These are things I continue to work on.
We just need to keep working on it. Never give up. Never throw in the towel. God desires obedience for us and we will be rewarded in heaven. It will be worth it.
Tags: alcohol addiction, Celebrate Recovery, join the journey, Watermark Community Church
Celebrate Recovery Principle7
Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
Celebrate Recovery Step 10:
We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
1 Corinthians 10:12
So if you think you are standing firm be careful that you don’t fall.
On the back of our Celebrate Recovery t-shirts, we have written:
Celebrate Recovery
It’s a LIFESTYLE
The leaders of the Dubuque Celebrate Recovery chose this because we know that recovery is not just a year long journey. It is a life long journey! As we arrive at Celebrate Recovery principles 7 and 8, we begin to learn how to make our journey last forever, changing our lives for the better, forever moving us closer and closer to the likeness of Christ.
Look at principle 7 again. One of the most important things we can do in our daily time with God, is get to know Him better through the reading of His word. The other part of principle 7 is to do a self-examination. We can examine ourselves all day, but how will we know what is good and bad if we are not immersing ourselves in His word?
Proverbs 7 states it very clearly…
My Son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of you heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman;
God commands us to be obedient, and He does this because He loves us and wants to It is so very similar to the desire we have to protect our children from bad choices. We love them enough to tell them, and God loves you enough to tell you. That is why He has given you the Bible, so that you can read for yourself; and walk the narrow path He has engraved for you. protect us.
God will speak to you through His word. If you take the time, the Holy Spirit will quietly and lovingly convict you of your wrong doings. It is our responsibility to be still enough and quiet enough to listen, so that we may “know His will for our lives and gain the power to follow His will”.
If this seems difficult, I encourage you to get plugged into a program like Celebrate Recovery. It is an awesome spiritual growth program based on the 8 beatitudes, and it is life changing.
Tags: Celebrate Recovery, celebrate recovery daily inventory, Celebrate Recovery Dubuque, celebrate recovery principle 7, celebrate recovery proverbs 7, celebrate recovery self examination, celebrate recovery step 10, proverbs 7
Celebrate Recovery Principle 6 states…
Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others except when to do so would harm them or others.
Happy are the merciful (Matthew 5:7)
Happy are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)
And Step 9 says…
Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the alter and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the alter. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)
The truth is that you’ve hurt other people and other people have hurt you. The “AMENDS” step is about making amends with those you have hurt, and offering forgiveness to those who have hurt you.
We are called to do what we can to be at peace with all men (Romans 12:18).
In Celebrate Recovery, you will be taken through the process of confessing, asking forgiveness, and extending forgiveness and grace to others. This is not something you should do alone, but instead surround yourself with support team that will keep this process safe for you heart and the hearts of all those involved.
There will be unsafe situations where it will be better for you to make your amends through God by writing or letter, or prayerfully conversing with God about the relationship. And there may be some situations where a person you need to make amends with us has already left this earth.
This is the situation I am currently faced with as I have held on to and stuffed a lot of pain surrounding a car accident that took my brother’s life. I have struggled with anger towards my brother for making the choices that he did on the night that we lost him.
I will never understand; and forgiveness for me means accepting that truth….accepting the truth that I don’t need to figure it out. I can HATE his choice and LOVE him all at the same time.
By realizing that I can love him and still hate his sin has brought my heart to a place of complete forgiveness. We have all sinned! We all fall short of God’s glorious standard. I am called to extend others the same kind of grace that my heavenly father extended me. I have been loved when I was unlovable. I have been forgiven when I shouldn’t have.
Jesus death on the cross has wiped all of our slates clean.
I pray for you in your journey to forgiving as well, and I pray that you would find a group of Christians to surround you throughout the process.
Tags: amends, Celebrate Recovery, celebrate recovery amends, celebrate recovery confessing, celebrate recovery extending grace, celebrate recovery forgiveness, celebrate recovery God, celebrate recovery grace, Celebrate Recovery Principle 6, celebrate recovery step 9, forgiveness
I have been absolutely moved and convicted by Todd Wagner’s message Sunday at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX.
He spoke on the importance of making WAR against SIN. There is no silver bullet, quick fix to the sin in our lives.
Ephesians 4:13
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Your biggest enemy is YOURSELF! Make WAR 24/7 against the sin in your life by getting mean and critical of yourself, SIN!
John Piper explains this quite powerfully in the video below…
I see so many people sitting around in misery and it is only because of a…
- series of bad choices
- increased the gray area and misinterpretation of the Bible
- becoming more of the world
I could go on, but I won’t. Listen to John Piper’s video above and listen to the Tedashi’s video below if you can stand a little rap. I am moved and I’m making war against SIN!
I love how Todd ended his message encouraging us to MAKE WAR this way…
- Repent
- Have faith
- Commit to follow JESUS
- Love
- Surrender
- Guard your heart
- Watch your tongue
- Be on the alert
- Stand firm
- Reconcile
- Forgive
- Live with integrity
- Flee immorality
- Resist the enemy
- Beware
- Love what is good
- Identify false teachers
- Test the spirits
- Be careful with money
- Be filled with the Spirit
- Do not lean on your own understanding
- Be transformed by the renewing of your mind
- Encourage one another
- Spur one another one
- Yield
- Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God
- Listen to Him
- Meditate on His word day and night
- Worship
- Fear God
- Obey
- Walk in the light
- Be filled with the knowledge of His will
- Do not grow weary of doing good
- Study to show yourself approved as a workman who does not need to be ashamed
- Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness
- Suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ
- Be strong
- Love God
- Love others
- Present your bodies as living and holy sacrifices
- Pray at all times in the Spirit
- Let the word of God richly dwell in YOU
That is a glimpse of spirtual warfare and how you can make WAR against SIN!
At Celebrate Recovery, we are making WAR against SIN. We are saying that SIN is unacceptable in our life and we are taking action to remove every sin that so easily entangles us. I encourage you to do the same.
Tags: Celebrate Recovery, john piper, make war, tedashi, todd wagner, war against sin, watermark community, watermark dallas
God has placed many people in my life lately who are experiencing harsh consequences because of their sin. Some of them have been fully repentant of their sin; others still are not fully clinging to God’s truth. Regardless of where you’re at, if you have sinned, you must accept that our loving and forgiving God still hates sin. Although we can relish in this love, we must not take advantage of His grace. We should live in fear of His response to SIN, especially the sin in our own life.
Even a repentant child of God has to deal with the consequences of their sin. THAT IS REALITY my friend! We must trust God and God alone that He will move us through those consequences and remember that He does promise us a hope and a future.
Beth Moore put it this way…
God will forgive the sinner, but he will still judge the sin.
AMEN…If God did not judge our sin and provide us consequences than we would continue to live in our sin without repentance. Unfortunately, despite God’s judgement, I see many people doing this anyway. They are living in denial…they are in denial that the crap in their life is the direct result of their own bad choices and sin.
The truly repentant sinner who loves God and accepts consequences, will have a heart like that displayed in scripture: Micah 7: 9
Because I have sinned against him,
I will bear the LORD’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
and establishes my right.
He will bring me out into the light;
I will see his righteousness.
Or from The Message:
I’m sitting in the dark right now,
but God is my light.
I can take God’s punishing rage.
I deserve it—I sinned.
But it’s not forever. He’s on my side
and is going to get me out of this.
He’ll turn on the lights and show me his ways.
I’ll see the whole picture and how right he is.
Can you accept that some of the circumstances in your life right now are because of your own sin? Are you willing to admit that? Are you willing to wait for God to restore you? Do you believe His promises?
Have you accepted responsibility for your sin and said “I deserve it”.
Those are hard questions to answer honestly. When you have been truly repentant, you will accept whatever consequence God has for you willingly. You will purely in the hope of what’s to come and His promises of th good He has for us.
I’m doing it! I’ve sinned! I’ve repented! I’ve said, “I deserve it”. Many undesirable circumstances in my life are the result of past sins, but I have hope in what God promises and I believe His promises. In the midst of any struggle, I am content because I have God.
If this is tough for you; If you know you have sin in your life, but can’t get out of it, find your way to Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery is where I am reminded weekly of God’s promises and what can happen in a repentant sinner. “AMAZING” is all I can say!
Tags: Celebrate Recovery, Celebrate Recovery Dubuque, celebrate recovery reality, celebrate recovery repentant, celebrate recovery sin, repentant
