The Road to Recovery 2

"Now they were on the road...and Jesus was going before them..." (Mark 10:32 NKJV)

Principle 2 - I came to earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me recover.

Hope...Stop denying your pain...Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Without hope we are powerless. the root of powerlessness is pride. What was the sin of Sodom? Like many reading these words for many years I believed that the sin of Sodom was sexual. However scriputre puts a different slant on things. Ezeliel 16:49 says: "Look, this wa the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughter had Pride : the fullness of food and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Pride is arogance; ignorance, mixed with power it become a deady mixture. having more than you need, while others have not enough. "And they were haughty and committed abomination before me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit (Eze. 16:50 NKJV ). But this is not the half of it.

"Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all the abominations that you have done. You who judged your sisters, hear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs. Yes, be disgraced, and bear your own shame, because you justified your sisters " (Eze. 16:51-52 NKJV).

Do you get the picture?

""When I bring back their captives, the captives of sodom and her daughters, the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will also bring back the captives of your captivity among them, that you may bear your own disgrace and be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted them...For thus says the Lord God, I will deal with you as you have done, who despised the oath by breaking the covenant (Eze. 16:53-59 NKJV).

Without hope, we are all lost. "Faith is the evedence of things we hope for... (Heb. 11:1) In the darkness, God goes on...

"Nevertheless," don't you just love that word? "Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and younger sisters; for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of my covenant with you. And I will establish my covenant with you, then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you with an atonement for all you have done, says the Lord (Eze. 16:60-63 NKJV).

My hope is built on notheing less than Jesus' blood and righteouness.

I want to be free. I want to be more than I am.

I want to be free. I want to be like the man,

who went to the cross, to break the chains of my sins.

I want to be free, like him.

And the last verse of this most powerful tune, written by my pastor, many years ago, says.

O Lord, you have set your people free, so we are free indeed,

to cry abba to Almighty God, by the Spirt we've received.

Hope, indeed, "I earnestly believe that God exists, that he cares for me, and that he has the power to help me recover.

I came...I arrived

I came to...I woke up

I came to believe...Jesus alone can restore me to full recovery.

The Road to Recovery

"Now, they were on the road...and Jesus was going before them" (Mark 10:32 NKJV). This is the road to recovery, a twelve step program like no other.



Principle 1: To realize that I am not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing, and that my life in unmanageable. We must stop pitching our tents by the river in Egypt-de nile. You can't heal a hurt if you don't admit that it is there. "They have also healed the hurt of my people slightly , saying peace, peace, when there is no peace" (Jer. 6:14 NKJV).



"For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil that I will not to do, that I practice" (Rom. 7:18-19 NKJV).



Pride gets in the way.



"Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, she and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy" (Eze. 16:49 NKJV).



Fear gets in the way. Worry is a sure sign that we do not really trust God.

"Therefore, I say unto you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink (or perhaps what others will say of you) nor about you body, what you will put on...Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" (Matt. 6:25-27 NKJV). Over 600 times scripture repeats the phrase, "Fear not." Who are we to worry. The answer to fear is love. The answer to denial is honesty and openness with ourselves, with God, and with others. Pull up ypur tent pegs, Leave the river of denial, and get on the road to recovery.