7 Principles from Principle 7

Celebrate Recovery's Principle 7 of states, “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.”

That’s a LOADED statement! Let’s break it down…

#1 Reserve a daily time with God…setting time aside for God is just a good idea, it’s critical to maintaining any sense of progress in recovery. After a while it’s easy to get into a routine, to settle down, to grow complacent. We get comfortable in our sobriety, in our recovery, so comfortable in fact; we forget how it is we even got there…HIS help, HIS power, HIS grace. Are you setting time aside? Are you reserving a daily time with God?

#2 for self-examination…we PRAY for others, but we don’t try to fix them. The purpose of engaging God is a personal dialogue is to grow YOUR relationship, asking Him to reveal the things in YOU that need to change. Whether you’re talking to God or someone you trust, talking about other people is gossip. Trust me, it isn’t like God’s like, “Oh! Really? I didn’t know that about them!” How are you doing in this area?

#3 Bible reading…God’s word. That book is the easiest way to discover what God has to say to you right now, in this moment. It’s a tangible way of communicating with Him. He’s trying to guide you, lead you, direct you THROUGH His word. When was the last time you picked up your Bible with a desire to HEAR FROM Him?

#4 and prayer…God speaks through His word. You speak through prayer. Give Him thanks. Give Him praise. Give Him the good. Give Him the crap. Give Him your joy. Give Him your pain. Then stop. Pause. And listen. Listen for Him. Prayer is an intimate conversation between you and the Creator of the universe. He isn’t too busy to listen, are you too busy to speak?

#5 in order to know God…that should say it all. You want to know Him? Get in His word. Get in His face. How do you build a relationship? Proximity. Time. Communication. These are probably the 3 biggest components of a healthy, working relationship. How’s your relationship with God? Do you know Him?

#6 and His will for my life…we ALL have plans for our life. We ALL believe we know the BEST way to do something. We ALL think we know the RIGHT way. I’ve been there. I’ve done that. Chances are, you have too. How’d it work out? How far did you get? Me? I ended up in drug and alcohol addiction. I ended up choosing pornography over my wife (in other words, cheating on her, sorry guys gotta call it like it is). His ways are BETTER. His ways are GREATER. Want to know what He has in store for you? Set time aside for Him.

#7 and to gain the power to follow His will…here’s the real kicker; we CAN’T DO IT ALONE! He shows us His plan. He gives us direction. And we take off running, pumped, excited…problem is we left God behind. “Come on God! Catch up!” Recovery is about giving up our sense of control and allowing God to lead. Recovery is about running, no longer running AWAY FROM ourselves, but running in His footsteps. HE leads the way. Have you given up control?