Hebrews 3:7
"Today.........If you hear His Voice...............
We've heard all the sayings.....
"One day at a time"....
"Just for today".......
"Live in the present"......
All these have one thing in common. Staying in the moment. Focusing on what is going on right now.
The one common trait that seems to follow us around is we are either looking to the past or avoiding our future. Why? Well, that is rather a simple question.
We have allowed our past to dictate how we view ourselves. The past (our history) becomes the measurement for our self worth. Being a people who are coming out of addiction, the past is trashed. Broken relationships.....financial ruin......legal issues. I don't have to go down the list, you've heard it all before. But we allow such to tell us that we are terrible people.No matter how hard we try, the past is always an elephant in the room. Because of our repeated failure, we have reasoned with addict-a-logic that no matter what we do, we will fail. This is a pretty hefty mindset to overcome. Some simply tell themselves that will not think about the past. Some double their efforts to move forward under their strength toward the future. So what is the solution?
Deal with our past.
We make a Fearless and Searching moral inventory. Not to count up all the destruction, but to help us identify character defects and shortcomings in our personality. We make a list of people we have harmed, resentments and fears....sexual conduct. This is the one of the hardest steps to complete in recovery. Once our inventory has been completed, we then tell it to God, ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Part of the beaut of recovery is the incredible healing that comes when we confess. When we unload our secrets and are free from the power they have over us. Addiction thrives on secrets.
I tell the men who are in the Rapha program, "Live in this day. Take care of this day. Do all you are suppose to do for your recovery. But stay focused simply on this day." If I don't take care of today, I won't have a tomorrow. What I do today, for my recovery, sets up my tomorrow. Don't focus on the fact that you are never, never, never, never, ever going to be able to drink of drug again in your life. Focus on the simple fact that all you have to do is maintain this incredible gift of sobriety God has given to you today. all you have to is protect it and nurture it for 24 hours. That's all. One day...One day at a time. Truth be known, we should all live this way. Protecting the things Christ has given to us......just for today, for we know not what tomorrow may hold for us.
Paul, in Philippians 3:13-14, writes: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do....forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. When Paul stated that he has forgotten those things from his past, he is declaring that he has dealt with them. He has confessed and turned loose. They no longer have power over him. Paul is living in the moment. Yet in this moment.....in today....Paul states that he has a goal. He is reaching forward into his future from right here in today. That is a healthy way to live in Christ. Either Christ has to power to forgive and restore no matter what our past may hold....or it's all a bunch of hokum and we should just shuck it all and have the world's largest pity party. I tend to believe there is power in Christ to deal with my past once and for all.
As my good friend Peggy C. says to me.....
"What say ye?"
God on you....TODAY!!!!
mb
1 comment:
I say amen, and I also ask prayer for a loved one who has started drinking and we think using drugs, too. "Unto Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think..."
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