It has been almost month since I’ve written a new entry inthis journey of mine. Today I needed to address what God has been doing to enlighten me in steps He’s wanting me to take. This all started when I began to work on lesson 4 of Celebrate Recovery (CR). I am teaching this lesson tonight and it is called: SANITY.

In Celebrate Recovery we have the 12 steps of AA. John Baker, author of Celebrate Recovery took these steps and added supportive scriptures to each step. Along with this he added the 8 Principles which are derived from the Beautitudes. Tonight’s lesson is prinicple 2 and step 2. Prinicple 2 says: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover. I’ve taught this lesson about 6 times before tonight but the highlighted portions of this principle were screaming at me this time.

I lived 60+ years in denial (insanity) that I mattered to God. I was attempting to earn that “matter” trying to do “good works” for Him. In all of those years not once did anything I did measure up to what mattered. In those 3+ years of therapy coupled with CR, I began to hack away at the truth I hadn’t faced. This truth is that I already mattered to God. The abuse of man in my childhood didn’t impact for one moment how God felt towards me. He saw Jesus–His Son in me and He had given me His Holy Spirit which was waiting to be POWER to overcome all of my disbeliefs–character defects–hang-ups.

Tonight I hope to convey in this lesson that God wants to empower each one of us to not only know what this lesson teaches, but to believe it is real for them as I’ve learned for me. Stepping into believing is a monumental step for some of us and God’s Holy Spirit wants to be the power we use to complete this step!