Nehemiah 2:13
By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Wells and The Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and it's gates which had been destroyed by fire.
Nehemiah had a call on his life from God.
Not a simple task to fulfill, but one that would make Nehemiah aware of his need for God's help.
Rebuild the walls around the city of Jerusalem. We see Nehemiah, in the verse above, preparing to take an inventory of the destruction of the walls around Jerusalem.
Years had passed and the rubble and destruction of the Babylonian siege had not been dealt with. The city had no protection from the enemy. Breaches in the walls and burned gates gave the enemies of Jerusalem free access to come and go as they pleased. Now the word of God had gone to one Nehemiah with the charge of taking people back to restore the walls and gates. In other words, Nehemiah was to make Jerusalem a safe place where people could come and live once again.
Recovery is like the task given to Nehemiah. Years of neglect and abuse has broken down the walls of our lives giving the enemy free reign to come and go as he pleases. We are defenseless to do anything about it.
Using Step# 1, 2 and 3, we have now given ourselves (will and life) over to the care of God. We are now ready to address the problems of our broken walls. This brings us to Step # 4.
Step # 4 reads: "We made a searching and fearless moral inventory or ourselves." The scripture that coincides with Step # 4 is from Lamentations 3:40 - Let us examine and probe our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.
God gives us grace to take a look at our lives and see the places where we need His healing. The work begins inside and is evidenced by the change of behavior on the outside. All addiction....is a condition that is in need of God's healing. It isn't the presence and use of drugs and/or alcohol in our lives that is the problem. It is the simple fact that we have a broken relationship with Christ because of our sin that has given the addiction power to rule and reign over us. Does our using affect us physically? Yes. Does our using affect us mentally? Yes. Does our using affect us spiritually? Yes. So, we are in need of being healed by a power greater than ourselves. That power has a name, and that name is Jesus.
As we move through Step # 4, we begin to really see the character defects that we possess that has allowed our enemy (the devil) to take advantage of us and use us. With God's help and power, we are sealing up the broken places in our hearts and character so that we can live in peace and harmony with God. Will my life become one of sunshine and puppy dog's, lollipops and roses when I do Step #4? Probably not. Life is hard no matter what we do, but it sure is a lot harder without God in our life. Me personally, I think if life is hard, then I'd rather be connected to Jesus than be out there on my on winging it. How about you?
God on you.....
mb
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