ADDICTION

The fact is life is tough. We live in an imperfect world. We’re hurt by other people and we hurt ourselves and we hurt other people. The Bible says, “All have sinned.” That means none of us are perfect, we’ve all blown it, we’ve all made mistakes. We hurt and we hurt others.  Everyone needs recovery, unless you’ve lived a perfect life. But if you haven’t lived a perfect life, if you’ve ever been hurt, if you’ve ever had a hang-up or a habit that you’d like to get rid of, you need recovery.

  WHAT DO YOU NEED RECOVERY FROM?

  The good news is this: regardless of the problem you need recovery from, whether it’s emotional, financial, relational, spiritual, sexual or whatever, regardless of what you need recovery from, the steps to recovery are always the same. They are always the same.

The principles for recovery are found in the Bible. It’s the original recovery manual. In 1935 a couple of guys formulated, based on the Scriptures, what are now known as the classic 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and used by hundreds of other recovery groups. Twenty million Americans are in a recovery group every week and there are 500,000 different recovery groups. The basis is God’s Word.

  Here are some basic steps for your review.  Feel free to click on each point for a further explanation by Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church and author of the Purpose Driven Life. 

STEP 1 - Realize I’m not God. I admit I am powerless to control my tendency to do wrong things
 and my life is unmanageable

STEP 2 – Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover

STEP 3 – Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

STEP 4 – Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself, and to someone I trust.

STEP 5 – Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.

STEP 6 – Evaluate all my relationships, offer forgiveness to those who’ve hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others except when to do so would harm them or others.

STEP 7 – 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 gain the power to do it.

STEP 8 – Yield myself to be used by God to bring this good news to others.

“RELAPSE”—falling back into a self-defeating pattern
 How it happens------
            1. Complacency
            2. Confusion
            3. Compromise
            4. Catastrophe 

Go to Celebrate Recovery Ministry