Tag: Christian Recovery

A Gut Feeling

Guided by His Spirit

God rarely shows me the whole path. He often gives me peace for taking the next step.

The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them. Romans 8:14

We recently came up on our ten-year anniversary of living in our house, and I started reflecting on how God had led us here. At the time, the house we were renting had been foreclosed on without our knowing, and we were suddenly given until the end of the month to move out. We loved that house, the neighborhood, and our neighbors, so being forced out was extremely hard. On top of that, we only had a few weeks to move.

We quickly found another house that we liked, except that it reeked of cat urine. The property manager assured us they would eliminate the smell, so we put down a deposit and waited for it to be ready. We both had a gut feeling that we should wait. But every time we went back to the house, the smell was still there. After two weeks of them repeatedly promising to fix it, and only four days before we were to move in, they told us they were not going to fix it. Time was running out. We needed a place to live and did not have another plan. Walking away from that house at that time did not make any sense at all, but that is exactly what we did. We did not know what would happen next, but we had an inner knowing that we had to say no to that place and, at the same time, keep waiting.

We were all packed and ready to move but had nowhere to go. I started wondering if we had made a mistake. My wife and I got online and found a new listing, one that had just been posted. I sent an inquiry, and the property manager contacted me right away. Once again, both of us had a gut feeling, only this time there was more peace and a knowing with it. We thought this could be why we had been led to wait this whole time, even though it didn’t make sense. When we met with the property manager, I was honest and vulnerable about our situation. He listened, told us he had been doing this a long time, and said he went by his gut. We knew right then it was time to move forward. We rented the house on a handshake and moved in the very next day, with no time to spare. Had we found something sooner, we would have missed this place because it had only been listed that night. That gut feeling to wait really had been God leading us the whole time. This house was what we had been waiting for all along.

God rarely shows me everything at one time. He usually just shows me the next step. There are times when things do not make sense to me. But when I know in my knower that God is leading me, there is always peace that accompanies it. I have learned to pay attention to that inner sensing. It’s that inner prompting, that gut feeling that remains and brings peace, especially when things do not make sense. When I follow that knowing, that is when I know I am following His Spirit.

Reflection
Where have I seen God’s Spirit leading and guiding me, even when I did not understand it at the time?

Put Them Out

Protecting My New Life

I had to separate myself from old influences that were not good for me. Not everybody liked it. Not everybody understood it. But I had to do it for me

But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. Matthew 9:25

I often say that I love finding recovery principles in the Bible. The truth is, they are really biblical principles that recovery uses. I just see them from a recovery perspective now. There is a story about Jesus raising a little girl from the dead that reminds me of this. Jairus came to Jesus asking Him to heal his daughter. On the way to the house, word came that she had died. Jesus continued on, but He only allowed Peter, James, and John to go with Him. When He arrived at the house, people were crying, mourning, and wailing. Jesus told them the girl was not dead but sleeping, and they laughed at Him and ridiculed Him. That means they dismissed, belittled, and minimized Him and what He said. So He put them all out. Everybody except the girl’s mother and father and the three disciples had to leave. These were not just random people standing around. This was Jairus’ home. Family, friends, and important people in their lives were there, and Jesus still put them all outside. I don’t think they were happy about being put outside, and they probably didn’t understand why He did it either.

There have been times in my recovery when I have had to do something very similar. I have had to remove myself from people, places, situations, and influences that were not healthy for me. Some of those changes were drastic, but I did not want to stay anywhere close to the life I had been living. I wanted to get so far away from it that going back would not even be an option. Drastic times required drastic measures. I changed where I went. I changed who I spent time with. I stopped doing things that connected me to my former life. Instead, I surrounded myself with people who wanted to walk this new path with me, people like my sponsor, accountability partners, and other people I’ve met in the rooms of recovery. They encouraged me, challenged me, and helped me keep moving forward. And I was able to help them too. For me, I could no longer allow anyone or anything to pull me back toward my former life. A life I no longer wanted to live. Not everybody got to come with me, and I needed to put some people out too. Not everybody liked it or even understood it. But I was doing this for me.

And I have reaped the benefit of those decisions. My environment changed. My thinking changed. My relationships changed. The life I had known before began to disappear. In many ways, it died. And something new began to live. That is what I see when I read this story today. Jesus knew what He was about to do, and He was very selective about who was allowed to go with Him and who was allowed in the room. I have learned that I need to be selective too. There are people and influences that strengthen my faith, my recovery, and my life with God, and there are others that could pull me back toward my former life. I have a responsibility to guard what God is doing in my life. I take that seriously. And I have never looked back.

Reflection

Are there people, places, or influences in my life that continue to pull me toward a life I no longer want?