God’s timing is always amazing and incredible. There is a young man who has been coming for help over a year now. He is divorced and has a couple of younger children. He is committed to God but struggles so much with everyday life. His belief system has been all over the place. Truly, what he knows is certainly not what he has believed about God for himself. Tragedies and life’s events have done their work on this. Only a week ago did I get a text from him telling me just how much he has seemingly grown from the help of Celebrate Recovery and his counseling.

Yesterday in the middle of a counseling session I got a text which I later read. It was from this young man mentioned. It was accompanied with a picture of him with a young lady. They have met, had a date and he was now inviting her to go to church with him tomorrow. She is also a believer. In the text message he couldn’t praise God and these ministries enough for their help. I’m smiling again as I write this thanking God for this breakthrough.

I don’t have a clue where all of this will go. I will leave this to God’s continued timing and work. What I do know is that my timing and this young man’s timing needed to be spent working on the belief that God is faithful no matter what the circumstances are in our past or present life. God’s Word is for each one of us with no exceptions. Instantly, yesterday, this young man has only praise for God. He, for the first time, is seeing himself as a man with a blessing from God. I know this ugly lie this man has lived with. I lived with it myself, and then, almost 42 years ago–God gave me Kathy and my life has never been the same! God is faithful,and yes, He will come through.

The last two weeks of Celebrate Recovery I spent the share group time doing 101 with newcomers. The 101 is a one time session to give a packet of info to the newcomer to give background for the ministry. It is also a time for them to connect to a leader and hear their story. They have a chance to share what brought them also. Last week it was only one who was new. I was asked to do it because his past had similarities to my own. Last night I was asked again only because a couple of the male leaders were gone. There were 4 newcomers last night. I was genuinely touched listening to their reasons for coming.

The sad thing about newcomers is that only about 10% of them return a second time. The fear of going deeply into whatever brought them the first time is usually too great for them to return. We make so many excuses for ourselves at this point in our lives. We still want to take care of our problems without going to such a group as Celebrate Recovery. For those who do return, freedom awaits them. I couldn’t help but pray for each one this morning asking God to keep their motivation strong for returning.

I lived in the secrecy/bondage of my past far too long. The younger we are the more apt we are to think “I can do this on my own”. I pray this will not be the case for these 4 who came last night. God wants to grant them a new life!

There is something utterly amazing about living “…one day at a time and one moment at a time….” as is quoted in the Serenity Prayer. Without exception, everyone who comes for counseling or comes to Celebrate Recovery do so seeking help. Each one believes in God, but in every case, each one struggles to believe God. I write this today because this has been me almost all of my entire life.

The devotional I’m presently using is “God’s Purpose for Your Life” by Charles F. Stanley. The statement I used above saying, “each one believes in God but each one struggles to believe God” comes from this devotional. On Wednesdays I typically meet with 6 individuals. In meeting with them yesterday, each one was struggling to believe God by what He tells us in His Word. In every case, I hear, “Then why….?”

I have needed to learn to seek God’s purpose in my life rather than I being the one to try and put purpose for my life. Helping others to see that their lives, no matter what has taken place in them, past or present, can be tools in God’s Hands when we surrender them. Oh, how I pled with God to obliterate my past from my memories. Because He never would, I pled for Him to give me strength to keep it hidden. Instead, He gently guided me to a place of trust so I could begin to see that I could trust Him to use my story (my past) rather than obliterate it or hide it.

Today I believe God! Spending my time helping others shift from believing in God to trusting they can believe God is such a great privilege. I cannot thank God enough for His patience in turning my life around so that nothing in it has to be hidden any longer. Only our GOD does this!

Yesterday was a very interesting day. I had three sessions of counsel with the third one being a young man who had come for help almost a year ago and now wanted to return. I found that what I’d written yesterday became an important message for him. He was needing some support but was afraid to reach out for help thinking whoever he told would judge him. He said the ones he trust the most were his grandparents, but he didn’t want to disappoint them. It was then I told him about my own older grandkids who are his age. When they talk to grandma and me, we always promise to support them with prayer and we thank them for letting us know. The thought of judging a grandkid for being of our flesh would rarely if ever enter our minds. He agreed he was going to talk with his own.

When James 5:16 tells us to confess one to another for the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective, grandparents can be just that “righteous person/s”. No one would be more apt to lift another up than their grandparents. We have learned from our own living that God loves His children and wants us to support them just as we learned that He supported us in our times of need. God is so, so GOOD!

As I was journaling this morning I was asking Jesus about my personal struggle staying focused on Him throughout my day. It is so easy to get sidetracked as the day moves on. When I asked Him what He wanted me to know from Him for today, His response was immediate. He simply stated in my mind that I have no problem doing for Him what I know I’m to do. However, when it comes to times when I’m free from commitment, I quickly want to resort to selfish desires. It is then that I need to apply the simple question: Does this selfish desire honor Jesus? Taking a nap doesn’t dishonor, but there are other desires that do.

When I wrote in my journal what I’d heard God’s Spirit say to me I instantly thought–wow, how simple this step is. However, applying it is never that simple. My (our) selfish desires want to rule every time. It is easy to give this advice to someone who is asking for help, but to live it out oneself is the same struggle the one seeking help is needing. Reaching out to someone I trust is my best source of Godly help. James 5:16 (which I quote rather often) tells us to “confess one to another” and you will be healed.

Taking one’s struggle and putting it into the hands/heart of a trusted friend is an act of obedience that does help. Knowing a prayer warrior has now joined me brings a smile to my face.

The sermon series our senior pastor has been focusing his messages on has been DECIDE NOW. He wrapped this up yesterday with the message focus being COURAGE. Following the second service we had our monthly Celebrate Recovery leadership meeting. I couldn’t help but think how everyone of us sitting at this table needed to take that courageous step when we first came to CR. There have been hundreds who have taken this first step in the past 16 years, but the first one is the hardest. With that first step one has to be willing to say out loud he has a need that must be faced and I cannot do it alone.

I have truly loved/appreciated these weeks of focus on this topic. God’s Holy Spirit nudges us to take this step. Sometimes He is nudging us to come along side someone who needs our encouragement to take the step. In these cases we need to muster our courage to ask them to take this step with us. Obedience is the key here which seems (at least it did for me) like it might cost me my entire career and friendships. Instead, what it did was open a door for joining God in an area I thought must be kept buried until my body was buried.

Oh, how important it is to DECIDE NOW. Trusting God in an entirely new way will become an unexpected benefit!

Last night we had the birthday party for my dear friend who lost his wife a couple of weeks ago. It was intended to be a fun time, but one cannot be joyful in spirit when one’s spirit is still in grief. Thus, there were tears of sadness which will linger for quite some time. However, there were also laughs of momentary fun and humor which only a group of dear friends can generate. It is painful to see a friend hurting like this. I know that God is the great healer and He uses all things to His Glory. This friend is still getting cards and letters each and every day lending support to him. God is supplying the emotional support he desperately needs. God is so kind and good.

As each day arises I keep getting my daily focus to worship God by keeping my eyes on Jesus, listening to His Voice and Obeying His Commands. I want to have my friend’s hurt obliterated. God on the other hand, wants to use this time to comfort him, grant him peace and remind him he is loved in many different ways. God’s timing is always perfect.

The lesson for today was very clear as I was starting my devotional time. Trust and have faith in God’s Word for our daily living. The devotional message was built around Isaiah 58:11. The Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones. The author goes on to say that our desire for instant gratification so often has us running ahead of this promise for our own selfish reasons. This can be in all kinds of areas including food, financial, social, sexual, relational fulfillments. God promises to meet all of our needs, but His timing doesn’t often match our own flesh desires.

The more I go into this year with the commitment I wrote in yesterday’s blog, the more I see the truth in today’s devotional message for myself. My timing is always needing to be surrendered. Trusting God’s timing is critical if I indeed want Jesus to be Lord of my entire life each and every day. God just never is done helping us see the ills of our flesh. We can’t know the beauty of God’s care if we put our own ahead of His timing. Today’s lesson!

I’m having one of those awakening periods of time in my devotions of late. Today’s scripture reading is from the first chapters of Deuteronomy. Moses is prepping the children of Israel for their entrance into the promise land. He does this by reviewing with them the teachings God has given to him for them. Today he was reviewing the Ten Commandments and outlining just what each commandment looks like as we daily live. As he was addressing the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” he spoke very plainly about the gods of the people presently living in the land they would soon possess. These were gods of man’s flesh, and just like the gods of man’s flesh today, very attractive to our flesh.

I found it so insightful reading this today when I had just written yesterday about why God wants us to worship Him. As I wrote yesterday’s message I know God appreciates our worship, but I strongly believe what He truly appreciates is seeing us having our eyes on Him rather than on any “idol that worships man’s flesh/desires”. Spending so much time with Celebrate Recovery these past many years I’ve truly awakened to so many ways idol worship is done by us. I’m not going to try and state them here for God’s Spirit within each of us will show us what these are for each one.

I want my life to honor God fully. My commitment for 2024 is to keep my eyes on Jesus, listen and believe His Voice and then obey HIs commands. Worshiping God and letting no other god be before me is my present lesson in obedience.

There is a message about God and me God is wanting me to learn as of late. This message centers around my love for God. God wants us to worship Him, adore Him, love Him. This much I’ve always understood. As I’ve thought about it however, I’ve done so through the lens of me and how I process love given to me. There is a much different picture of God wanting me to worship Him that today’s devotional time awakened me to. 

Everything about us–mankind–is self-centered. I hate knowing this and admitting this because I always used my dad or my brother’s behaviors as the epitome of selfishness. I’ve never wanted to be like them and God has taught me I’m not like them, I’m like myself–self-centered. God is showing me that my main reason to worship Him each and everyday is to get my eyes off of me and onto God Himself. Yes, I’m sure God appreciates this, but what He appreciates more than anything is me getting my eyes off of myself and onto Him. I do this when I worship Him. 

I’ll never fully grasp this immense love of God while I’m here on earth in my flesh. But, I want to live in worship to this God of mine–ours. He is so worthy of our praise and adoration! How grateful I am!