Let’s look at Luke 18:1-8 and see what we can determine with respect to addictive behavior recovery. in this parable, Jesus addresses both persistence and hope. These definitely go together in a recovery effort. Change in character and personality traits takes a great deal of effort and consistency. This can often be discouraging when we do not see progress or the rate of progress we hoped for. The scripture says “Will not God grant justice to His elect…?” The connection between the judge with an attitude and our recovery struggles is based on Jesus’ call to have faith and call on God “day and night”. The addictive behavior is our “unjust Judge”. Yes, we brought this on ourselves and often find it difficult to make the changes necessary to recover . There is a real need to develop consistent habits of prayer, being open, working with our recovery group and if married - the relationship with our spouse. These efforts will rewire the brain and emotional responses. As addictive personality, we often respond to our emotions rather than the logic that says - “what does God want from me in this situation. “ Yet, Jesus encourages us to cry out to God “day and night”. Do we really take a persistent attitude in both prayer and recovery efforts? We need to put effort into both of these elements of our recovery. If we become self reliant, the recovery will be self based and not deal with the spiritual element which is key to a full spectrum recovery. God wants us to call on him in our recovery. What better help can we call on than God Almighty? This should inspire us to make every effort to implement the changes we need to make in our character and our environment. And to God be the Glory!

Often when we are trying to recover from something, we struggle with where to go and how to get there. Luke 11:27-28 gives a simple and clear direction for us but it is often difficult to follow. “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”. Wow, clear and simple. Yet we are struggling with keeping it - obeying - what am I supposed to be obeying? Why is this such a struggle? Ok, lets go back to the beginning. The Ten Commandments - some of this starts there. Duet 5:18 “do not commit adultery”. Ok, married guys have clear direction from the beginning. God wants our relationship to be simple and clear. God first, spouse second and only the spouse. Simple in theory - that means visuals, thoughts , memories, etc in the emotional and physical realm are to be singularly focused on the spouse. You have to put all the rest away. What about single guys? No real clear guidance in the Ten. But wait, it is not over - 2 Cor 6:6 / 1 Tim 4:12 / 1 Pet 3:2 all address purity across the board. No escape or avoidance for any of us. Purity is an expectation of God. So why don’t we see that Blessing God is waiting to bestow on us? Are we in our own way, stumbling over this issue and preventing God from blessing us? Are we in God’s way preventing his will to bless us from being carried out? Think about this and consider if our selfish moments are more important than the will of God? Are our desires more amazing / exciting / extraordinary / glorious than the blessings of God? You have to decide. You have the choice!

Today we will look at Romans 5:1-5 and the concept of character in the effort to recovery from addiction. “Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace…” but in our effort to recover we often find ourselves in situations that are far from peaceful. There often seems to be a disconnect between recovery and the peace the scripture promises. How do we make this connection work? Do we “…rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” This is very difficult but we need to see the opportunity to make the decision to be joyful and at peace. The scripture calls us to “…rejoice in our suffering…” - that just seems an unlikely emotion. If we consider the idea that suffering produces endurance / endurance produces character / character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame. Shame is one of the initial emotions we encounter when we realize where we are in our relationship with God and the impact of our addiction. We don’t often feel we really suffer as there are so many distractions in today’s culture we can’t really focus on our effort to recover. We have created our own addiction through our decisions we have made to date. Now comes the effort to face that addiction or lack of self-discipline and work to modify our character to break that influence. We need to believe that the endurance created by facing our addictive behavior will result in hope that we can really rely on. Remember - we created this element in our character and if we created it, we can reshape our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical responses. We have been given the Spirit and it will rejoice in our victories and we need to decide to rejoice as well. That hope promised is not just a positive thought - it is a certainty!! To God be the Glory!!

In Mark 7:14-30 we see a great contrast in human nature which we all struggle with. Our recovery from habitual or addictive sin resonates from our desire to have what we want even if it defies the will of God. The discussion of defilement in vs 14-23 lists a set of defilements which include sexual immorality, adultery, sensuality and pride. The physical indulgence is driven by emotion and we see pride as a list of the defilement. It is interesting that pride is one of the strongest motivating emotions in the human character structure. Our desire to have what we want overrides the scriptures that define behavior that God desires for us. It is in some sense that our pride drives us to defy the Creator? Yet the opposite character trait of humility is shown in the following scriptures of Mark 7:24-30 concerning the Syrophoenician woman. She pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter. Do we plead with Jesus for our own healing? This woman shows an amazing level of humility liking herself to a dog picking up scraps from the table. The contrast of defilement vs the gift of healing granted to the woman and her daughter is quite striking. Which of these results do we really want to claim? Defilement through our pride and selfish desires or pleading with Jesus for healing from a position of humility. Maybe we need to redefine our approach to prayer and our relationship with Jesus.

With the reading of Mark 5 and Mark 6 one gains an insight into healing that can change our journey of recovery. In Mark 5:27-29 we see the woman in the crowd who heard of Jesus and followed him to touch his garment. …”and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” Jesus gave her the credit for the healing and her faith. in Mark 6:56 we see the touch of Jesus fringe of his garment could heal. That was the power of Jesus and those healings were not his overt and intentional actions. It was the faith of the people that took the action that empowered the spirit to heal. I am not intending to let anyone think I know how this works but we should all be encouraged to consider this in our own healing. If they had faith and reached out to Jesus which resulted in healing, we have the same opportunity. If we do nothing and just “wait for it” there is a good probability nothing will happen. We need to truly reach out to Jesus for the power to change and heal from addiction or habitual sin. To think that at baptism we were granted the gift of the Holy Spirit is amazing. That same power that healed the woman is present in us. Do we really reach out to touch it and pray for help, power, desire and insight into how to heal? We need the power of Jesus and that should empower us to change. We need to carefully think through what in our lives needs to change and face it head on. Make the changes and follow up. Get help, follow up and do not give up!!! To God be the Glory!

Many of us have a complex journey of recovery and it sometimes overwhelms us. If one looks at Acts 20-28 and a summary of Paul’s journey from Greece / Macedonia to Jerusalem and then onto Rome you can sense the massive undertaking. He is discouraged from going, dire predictions, accusations, false imprisonment, death threats, shipwreck, snake bites, … but nothing deters him. We need to have this kind of focus and determination in our recovery journey. We need to be focused on the life God intends for us - one of righteousness and purity. Yet Satan will throw everything he has at us to distract us and drag us back into our past. Yet we need to be inspired by Paul’s example of relying on God and the Grace shown and given to us through Jesus Christ. God’s plan was for Paul to be heard in Rome and witness to Caesar, the most powerful man in the known world. God has a plan for us as well - stay focused on the goal and do not get distracted by the daily journey.

This is Father’s Day Weekend. It is an interesting time for many of us. Our relationships with our fathers define many aspects of our life and character. Some of us do not know our fathers, some of us do to not enjoy a positive father relationship, some of us (like me) have lost our fathers, and to some our father is our greatest hero. But God steps in on this in many ways. In Gen 12:1 God calls Abram to leave his father and embark on a trip to an unknown region guided only by God. In some ways, we begin our life as a disciple in the same way. We give up our worldly life and begin to live for God with Jesus Christ as our guide. Ps 2:7 says “You are my son, today I am your Father”. The idea that we can have a personal relationship with the Creator of the world is an amazing thought. Yet God gives up his son Jesus for us. In Matt 3:17 we see the relationship between Jesus and God …”This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased”. This is the one that God allows to go to the cross for us - to cover our sins with the blood of his “beloved son”. Do we honor our Father when he gives us the most amazing gift that we can imagine? In addition to the gift of salvation and forgiveness Eph 2:6 promises we will be "…” raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places..”. We need to honor all that God has given and promised us by living the way he desires for us. We need to set aside our selfish desires and respond by obedience to his call for righteousness and purity in our personal choices. To God be the Glory!!!

Today’s discussion comes from Eph 2:1-12 The idea of being ‘dead in our transgressions’ should be familiar to us. That is where we came from and too often ,with an addictive personality, feel we can fall back into the things that try to regain control over us. We have to look at the ‘passions of the flesh’ , the emotions and desires that drive us. Where do they come from? What sets them off even though we are convinced that we over came all that and put them behind us. Only by carefully analyzing these things can we see what God is working on to help us modify our character. While God is ‘rich in mercy’ he also has some expectation that we respond to his mercy. The idea that he ‘raised us up with him’ is quite startling considering our past and even today as we struggle with recovery and rebuilding our character and actions on a daily basis. Obviously his mercy is far more than we can understand or even accept without a gratitude that exceeds the comprehension we possess. ‘By grace we have been saved’ but that comes with a debt we can never pay. Yet, we need to have a response that shows how much we have gained by our salvation. ‘We are his workmanship’ and it should show in how we live. We too often feel the need to hide our issue and as a result also hide our victories. Paul writes that we are Gods workmanship so that we cannot boast but God has prepared good works for us. Shouldn’t part of our good work be acknowledging the victory God has brought to us in our recovery? Share your victories!!! Give hope to others. We cannot be so self focused, self conscious or selfish to glorify God with our lives.

2 Cor 12:7b-10 We often wonder what Paul was like personally. In the book of Acts we see him cause riots, be assumed he was a god, be put on public trial and in Acts 18 his time in Corinth results in a public trial and a public beating of the ruler of the Synagogue. He certainly created turmoil because he spoke the word of God boldly. In our text today we see another side of Paul. He confesses he has a thorn. No one knows what it is and I believe God did that intentionally so none of us can say “well, no I don’t have that issue.” In stead we can all put ourselves in Paul’s place as we look at our struggles in our personal character and say to ourselves - “If Paul can overcome, so can I” The question is, do we work to control our thorn? Do we put in a daily effort? Do we allow it to shape us in the way God wants us to grow. I am sure that everyone of us has asked God to take this away but He does not. We need to grow in our character to control our thorn and not let it control us. We can pray for self control, to overcome our desires, to control our emotions but we need to grow. Do we want to be able to boast of a victory? We see the need to overcome growing in our culture and society here and around the world. Social media and the internet make almost everything immediately available and with an addictive personality, this makes life more difficult. Many are hiding their issues but is it possible God wants to use you to show those around you victory is possible? “My grace is sufficient for you” is as real for us today as it was for Paul. Do we consider ourselves victims or do we reflect the power of God to heal? We need to make that power as real for us as it was for Paul. Not in laying on of hands but in applying recovery to a real demon in our lives. And to God be the Glory.

Today we will take a look at 2Cor7 as a source of our inspiration and recovery. In vs 1 it refers to a promise in Ch 6 which says in vs 17 …”touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you..”. In Ch 7 we are challenged to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit. For someone struggling with an addictive or long term sin this can be a challenging and discouraging perspective because we think we have tried - even tried everything. The key is not to give up. We must remember that in recovery we are rebuilding mind, body, and spirit. That takes time and effort. Later in the chapter we see in vs 9 that Paul refers to the idea that our grief can lead to repentance. We have to search our hearts and make sure we do not fall into the trap of self pity or self condemnation which are not the same as true repentance. True repentance takes an element of openness and self honesty that allows us to see what and how to really change. That usually takes the ability and willingness to talk to someone about what we struggle with. Vs 10 holds a key thought of godly grief producing repentance that leads to salvation but a wordly grief produces death. As we struggle repeatedly we can often think it is easier to just give up and if we do, the sin can take hold and sentence us to a spiritual death. We have to search our inner being and draw strength from God and those around us to not let that happen. We need to find that ‘eagerness to clear ourselves’. We need to help each other find the ‘zeal’ necessary to change to the point of being innocent in whatever challenges us.

Sufficient and being transformed

2 Cor3 While this lesson could be accused of taking pieces of the scripture I want to focus on several key ideas in relation to our struggle to overcome.  …”but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant…”.  We often look at our deficiencies and focus on our shortcomings and lose sight of God’s vision for us.  He gave us free will which we took advantage of and make mistakes but he also made us with a desire to overcome.  To recover - or we wouldn’t be here.  Paul writes of the glory of the reception of the 10 Commandments which faded over time.  If stone tables had glory - what about the Holy Spirit?  That glory has been given to us and we need to remember that as we struggle.  God’s plan is for us to overcome and represent that victory through Him to those around us.  And finally, “we all… are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…”  This recovery we are all working on is our transformation into glory.  It is hard to keep that in mind when we are struggling but we need to help each other remember that.  When the struggle hits - reach out and give someone a chance to remind you of the glory that God.  Let our recovery be a message of hope to those who need it and are looking for - to the Glory of God

Here’s a slide deck (click on the PDF link below) from one our Workshops

When one is fighting to overcome something that has control of part or all of our life it can be a lonely struggle.  We often feel alone, we are the only one, no one understands.  We ask ourselves “am I the only one who struggles with this?” Romans 12:10 says “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” One should no feel alone in their struggle.  The purpose of this Blog is to have a public exposure of habitual or addictive struggles and serve as a resource for those looking for support.  There are many resources - medical, physical, spiritual available to us in our society today but the first action is to take the first step to engage.  That is sometimes very difficult because we are taking a very personal struggle and making it “public” in a sense.  We may be taking our deepest, darkest secret and having to be open about it in order to get the help we need.  This blog will be spiritually and scripturally based.  The Overcomes group here in Hampton Roads area meets weekly.  We will take these lessons and other items and post them here as a resource for those interested.  Recovery requires the rebuilding of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual disciplines in our lives.  In Genesis God tells Abram “I am your very great reward”.   We have to have a God centered recovery if it is to be what God really intends for us.  We are here to help and encourage you in your journey.

Neil Rondorf

an Overcomer 

757-270-4956

nrondorf@gmail.com

Phil 1:21-26 Live for Christ - “ For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.”

We see Paul’s desire for life and doing whatever is possible for our life in Christ.  We often get self focused in our struggle with habitual or addictive behaviors.  We live for our desires and follow that with guilt and regret.  We pursue what we want which is often not what God has in mind or wants for our lives.  We need to back away from the details of life and envision or meditate on what God may want for our lives.  Too often we focus on our self focus “little life” and miss the opportunity to seize the vision of God’s “Big Life”.  We see Paul’s focus on the Phillipians in his comment in vs 24 - more necessary for you - he is focused on others.  This is a key for your recovery.  We need to be reaching our to others for support and input.  We also need to be encouraging others in their struggles.  Look for ways to help.  Look how Paul and Silas leave Phillipi in Acts 16.  After being freed from jail and encouraged to leave town - he visits Lydia and encourages the disciples.  We need to get started focusing on others and not our desires.

The lesson for today comes from Gal 4:8-11.  Paul writes to the Galatian Church about the pull of the world to return to the things we escaped when we  turned our lives over to God.  In Verse 9 he asks “…how can you turn back to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces?  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?”  This is a key element of habitual or addictive behavior.  We have good intentions but they often fail to deter us from behaviors that have controlled our actions for years if not decades.  We often find our selves reacting to worldly influences rather than the spiritual guidance we need.  We cannot fight this fight alone.  God wants to be our recourse but if that relationship is not strong we often turn elsewhere.  We need personal relationships we can turn to but we often turn to them when the crisis is past to gain spiritual, mental and emotional support.  The engagement needs to take place during the crisis approach in order to gain the strength to resist and overcome.  That joy of victory is reflected in Gal 5:1 “Chris has liberated us to be free.  Stand firm then and don’t submit again to the yoke of slavery”.  God’s goal for us is to have a strong relationship with God that allows us to turn to him in crisis and with his strongly and encouragement to resist and overcome.

This week we will look at a few short verses with a huge question for all of us.  Acts 11:1-3 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 

 When Peter returned he was confronted with the issue of circumcision and the traditional separation of Jews from Gentiles.  To some this was more important than the actual expansion of the Kingdom even though the message came in a vision.  God was actually being thwarted by opinions and attitudes in culture and societal differences.  Sound familiar?  Our personalities and character traits often refuse the reality and importance of our temptations.  Do we get hung up on our desires and what we want vs what God has in mind for us?  Do we approach recovery by starting with resistance to change?  We need to be ready to change our thought process, emotional responses, physical environments and spiritual commitment to righteousness God intends for us.  We cannot allow ourselves to be held captive by our past experiences but embrace recovery as a total rebuild just as God generated a new view of God and salvation with a simple visit by Peter to the house of Cornelius.  Let’s get about building the new you.

Today we will take a look at a guy we are unfortunately similar to.  In Matt 27:1-10 we see the response of Judas to the situation he created in his betrayal.  We say “I am not like Judas!!” but in a sense we are.  Judas spent several years with Jesus and had his character flaws overwhelm him.  We committed our lives to Jesus as his disciples and yet we allow our character flaw of habitual or addictive sin to influence our lives.  But in some sense we are also like the priests in that they were hypocritical about the silver, the sin of Judas, and their response to it.  They bought a field to make themselves feel better.  It was their money to begin with, they couldn’t use it as it was now tainted by their own actions so they found a way to feel ok about it.  As we deal with habitual or addictive sin, we often justify our actions -“I am not hurting anyone” / “this isn’t that bad” / “it is only once in a while” - you fill in the blank but it is true. We allow the sin to creep back in and we do not recover but we are “working on it” but without progress.  What would have been the result if Judas had gone to Jesus and asked for forgiveness?  What if the priests had not paid Judas at all?  What would have been different in the development story of Acts?  How will your life be different if you truly discard the sin that entangles you?  How will God unfold the story of your life?  What will your life be like if you are truly available to be used by God and not held back by a sin you want to become free of?  Decide today to commit yourself to your recovery in a way that will truly glorify God!!