Addiction Recovery

Chapter One Recognizing Our Brokenness

Chapter Two   Having Faith In God

Chapter Three God Is In Charge

Chapter Four Making A Self Examination

Chapter Five Confession Follows Examination

Chapter Six Repentance: The Way To Forgiveness

Chapter Seven God Is Able To Cleanse Us

Chapter Eight Examine Our Relationships

Chapter Nine          Pressing Forward

Chapter Ten Move To Reconcile

Chapter Eleven Draw Near To God

Chapter Twelve Shine Your Light

Chapter Four: You Must Make A Self Examination

Here comes the part where almost everyone thinks that the brutal truth is going to beat them to realize their problem, you know this isn’t true, this is not the way that we should expect to be treated, yes we will be looking at truth, but not just the truth about the effects of our addiction to ourselves and to others, but we need to go back to the beginning to hear the whole truth, not only the truth about these effects, which by the way, we all are too aware of the damage, but the whole truth starts by examining ourselves and examining God, why God? Because we are meant to resemble him, created in his image and likeness. So it’s a bit unfair to have someone look at themselves only to point out their flaws. Do you know that you have many wonderful things about you? These wonderful things come from the image that we were created in, things such as creative talents, music, art, writing, speaking, comedy, sports, design, mechanical skills, and on and on! Mostly when others here of addiction they do not consider all of the positives before they begin to tear us down with the negatives. They have forgotten to discover the worth of an individual! What is your worth? Can you think of the thing or things that you are good at? Let’s take some time to consider this, let’s make a self examination of what our worth is to ourselves, to others, and to God.

Write a paragraph about your self-worth:

Now let us begin with grace: (read)

Amazing Grace 

Amazing grace how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believed

Thru many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come

Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.

When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun

We've no less days to sing God's praise, Then when we first begun.

Welcome to chapter four of Addiction Recovery. We are grateful that you have made a decision in your life to live a new way. This will require honesty, willingness, and a total surrender of yourself to a greater power that is able to make a difference in your life. We pray that you are blessed as you participate, and that in these coming weeks change will become very noticable to you. Let us begin week/step four. Read the following and the join me in the short prayer below.

I think it’s fair and appropriate to know the whole truth,

Now that we have spent time examining our self worth we can begin to examine what we are supposed to be and what we are and what we will be if we continue this course without change.

Let’s begin:

Chapter Four -  You must make a self examination

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” Lamentations 3:40

Why return to the Lord? So that we can see what we are supposed to be, not what we are because of our addiction! 

“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5

Why mortify or what does mortify mean? Mortify literally means to put to death, to not allow these things to live anymore!

 If when we look at or imagine who and what God is, how far have we moved away from this image? How can we know? Well God can be described as love, compassion, righteousness, truth, absolute, freedom, and many more things, and we find this by hearing the word of God. It is by hearing the word of God that we will find out what God looks like and what he acts like.

Someone might say, well what am I supposed to look like? The answer is, love, compassion, truth, righteousness, freedom, and all that God’s likeness is. Another might say, this is impossible! No one can be God! That is true! It is not impossible to be created in his image and likeness though! So our goal first is to see who he is, second to see how far we have moved away from this, and third to take steps to move towards restoring that image in our life!

The so-called “Rat Race” and all of our cares makes it very difficult to slow down long enough for us to take a good look at our lives, where we have been, where we are now, and where we plan to be in the future. Now’s the time though! 

Time to sit still and take a look at what is in us.

UNDER MY SKIN

“I the Lord search the heart, try the reigns, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to his doings.” 

Jeremiah 17:10

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” Lamentations 3:40,41

When we are making a fearless moral inventory and examination of ourselves we must be mindful that nothing can be hidden, swept under or forgotten, because in truth we know it’s there, and in truth God knows it all too!

The search of what’s under our skin and in our heart is what we will begin to discuss now, this is deeper than any biology textbook can reveal, more revealing than any anatomy textbook, and more mysterious than any other study that ever exists. The study of what is in the heart, and under our skin has been the topic of all of life! To really understand was lies beneath the skin we much search within the deep halls of our mind and heart, into the secret places that only God and each individual person can go. God is there, as we read, “I the Lord search the heart…” So let us also search.

Friend if the Lord is searching your heart and he knows our ways we must know that nothing is hidden from him, so with this understanding let us ask him to reveal all that he finds, pray this with me,

Jesus, search my heart and reveal to us the deep hidden things about me that I have suppressed in an effort to hide the truth from myself and others, reveal it so that I can recover in honesty, because you have said the truth shall make me free!

As it is written, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32

We are reading this book for the truth so follow me in your Bible to Galatians chapter five, here we will be searching through this chapter to see if we can recognize any within ourselves.

Galatians 5:19 “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, reviling, and such.”

In this list did you recognize any of these in your life?

Don’t forget when we make a “fearless” examination of ourselves we must tell it all, no matter how bad, how shameful, or how unlawful we have been.

Right human conduct comes first by making a fearless examination of ourselves and then holding all that we are up to the light of God. The light of God is not opinion, it is fact.

The fact is… The truth is… I am … ?

Did you answer this with all honesty, if so let’s get to work on shaping our life into what God says that we are.

God did not create addicts! God created mankind, he created you! Special, peculiar, brilliant, creative, wonderful, artistic, and over comer!

You see God created you to overcome, the devil, sin, addiction, enemies of his, trials, tragedy, sickness, and disease!

Why do we try to hide the truth from God? If he already knows us and already has a full account of all of our deeds then why do we hide?

Adam and Eve did the same in the Garden of Eden, they hid from God, as we read,

“And they heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8

Are you still hiding anything? Why? 

Healing comes by revealing!

This is one of the most important aspects to recovery. To search ourselves after we have come to the knowledge that Jesus is the source of power that can change us. In searching ourselves we have admitted our need for change and our desire to get an up close reality view of who we are and who Christ says we are. NO MORE LIES!

ARE YOU BEING CONFRONTED BY GOD TODAY?

Remember we all fall short and God already knows who we are, but we must know ourselves by being honest.

“Confess your sins and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” 1John 1:9

In making this examination of ourselves we cannot hide from God or our true self any longer. We must confess the truth, remember the good about you, and be real about your addiction and the bad that it causing in you and others around you.

Looking at ourselves honestly we find that addiction is very selfish, deceiving, and prideful. Selfish because we seek only to please ourselves at any cost. Deceiving because we are deceived, and we work to deceive others by covering or hiding our addiction and even denying it, and finally it is prideful, because all of the focus is on “I” and the pride ride comes out so that we can make ourselves feel better about who we really are when we are in this addiction.

Of the list of character flaws listed in Galatians five, are you saying that you do not have any of those? Be careful of denial, because denial prohibits recovery and lengthens the destructive process allowing for it to continue it’s course.

The truth is, as God clearly says,

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one.” Romans 3:10

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

Friend God knows all about you, how you were fearfully and wonderfully made, how he wants you to live in his image and likeness, and how you have strayed from that image to become the image that destroys life.

You are not made to be an addict, you are made in the image and likeness of God! Now we must move to erase all that is not in his likeness.

CHAPTER FIVE : CONFESSION FOLLOWS SELF EXAMINATION!