The Mirror Work : Righteousness

For a few days I was getting easily offended and then anger started to bubble up inside of me. So I was praying to God to highlight why I was feeling this way. 

Because since I started Recovery from my Habits, Hurts  and hang-ups I've changed so much. So it was annoying me why I was acting this way. 

 Then as usual God will puts someone or something in your life to help with the lesson.

 I was listening to John Edward's on zoom, and he was saying about how he has helped so many people. And one time he was saying how he put money on a girls electric card. I felt and this is no reflection on John that He sounded so Self-Righteous.

 But when I reflected on it, it wasnt him. He is a good man and I love listening to him.

It was my faulty thinking.  So I looked into the mirror to see what was inside of me.... And what came up was "RIGHTEOUSNESS" 

My anger was not producing the righteousness of God in my life 

James 1:19‭-‬25 NLT

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

Then it started to hit home after I was sitting with my sister Jean and I was talking to her about the anger inside of me.

 While we were talking a scripture pop into my head, because just a little while before it did we just watched our neighbor's dog eat it's own vomit.🤢🤮. Told you God has ways of helping maybe not so nice but it made it stick in my head.

So when I went into my own house I looked that Scripture up and it was Proverb 26:11..."As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness".

Everything was fallen into place and I could feel my anger slowly disappearing. The Bible I was using was "The Life Recovery Bible" that I just bought. (Which is amaising it gives more insight to the scriptures for me because it's a recovery Bible) So at the bottom of the page 815 it says this 

26:11 We almost invariably repeat the patterns of the past; our old problems revisit us again and again. It is easy to slip back into our addictions; that is why we need to be diligent in the recovery process. When we relax in our recovery program, we are setting ourselves up for a relapse into our old lifestyle. Only through perseverance will we be able to overcome our dependencies".

The word perseverance stood out and a scripture came to mind why I love this word. ( I never use too 😝 but I do now!!!) 

Romans 5:3‭-‬5 NLT

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:3‭-‬5 NIV

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

In the NLT translation it says endurance but in the NIV it says Perseverance. That's why I like to read different translations because you get different perspectives on it. 

The definition of endurance is “the power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.” The definition of perseverance is “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”

So my problem with the anger help me see I was not walking right with God and my recovery program. The minute I realized this the anger disappeared 😇🙏❤ 

So keep looking in that mirror and ask God to show you a scripture to help. Ask and you will receive....

Human Nature/ Righteousness

Romans 3:10‭-‬18 NLT....

As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies.” “Snake venom drips from their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “They rush to commit murder. Destruction and misery always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace.” “They have no fear of God at all.”

Recovery Principle Devotional...Self-Perception

"SELF-PERCEPTION...Read Romans 7:18-25

We may have begun to realize that we have character flaws that are beyond our control. Deep down inside there is a sense of brokenness that is a constant reminder of our humanity.

 Hopefully, we will get to a place where our behaviours is under control, and we will be able to maintain sobriety. But as long as we are in a human body, we will have to contend with our sinful nature.

   Paul said of himself, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do good, but I don't... There is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me" (Romans 7:18, 23). 

King David described God's tenderness toward us because of our human condition: "The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust" (Psalm 103: 13-14

No matter how far we progress in recovery, our sinful nature will always be susceptible to the lure of our addictions. 

We can't afford to forget this or let down our guard. Maintaining sobriety is something we will need to nurture for the rest of our lives, one day at a time. 

But we also have a reason for great hope. By trusting Christ and recognizing our helplessness against the power of sin, we open our lives to the transforming power of God. 

SELF-PERCEPTION... READ ROMANS 12;1-2

How many times have we wished that we could be someone else? Perhaps one reason we act out our addictions is that we hate ourselves. Self-hatred is often associated with an addictive/compulsive personality. If we don't like who we are and feel helpless to change, we can be reassured in knowing that God has the power to change us dramatically.

  The apostle Paul wrote: " I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice- the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12;1-2).

   Paul tells us to avoid being like the world around us. If we copy the behaviour and customs of this world, we will head straight towards selfish ways and destructive dependencies. Our work involes turning our lives over to the care of G od. As we trust and obey him, he will work changes in us and make us new peopl. God wants to change us from the inside out. As we are changed on the inside, we will begin to demonstrate those changes in our external attitudes and actions. 

  We all have great potential for change, but we cannot do it under our own power. As we yield our lives and wills to God, we can depend on him to renew our minds and hearts. He will help us overcome our defects of character, transforming us from the inside out... 

Found this website about Self-Perception here is a little piece of it .......According to self-perception theory, when people are unsure of their own attitudes, one way to infer them is by looking at their behaviors. Daryl Bem proposed self-perception theory in 1967 when he argued that people sometimes analyze their own behavior in the same fashion as they would analyze someone else’s behavior.

Living Bible..Step 1.

 Step 1 : We admitted that we were powerless over our problems--that our lives had become unmanageable

Scriptures : Romans 7:18 "For I Know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature"

See also John 8:31-36 and Romans 7:14-25 

Living In The Moment...

My sister Jean and I were discussing depression. We were saying how when we were young nothing worried us we just lived in the moment. 

But now we are older we have lost that and just worry a lot  about the past or the future.

And at the end of our conversation we said that we need to live in the moment and take each moment at a time and enjoy it.

So when I was reading The Serenty Prayer by Trevor Hudson this stood out from... CHAPTER 6 Enjoying One Moment at a Time 😁

The Importance of the Here and Now.

 If we are going to enjoy the present moment, we first need to be convinced about its importance. Too often we allow ourselves to be preoccupied with the past or the future. We struggle to live wholeheartedly in the present. Like a ping-pong ball that goes from one side of the table to the other, our minds constantly bounce between yesterday and tomorrow. We need to catch this ball, hold it lightly and give this moment our full attention. Strengthening our belief that what is most important is the here and now will encourage us to attempt this. Here are two thoughts that may deepen this conviction for you. First of all, the here and now is all that we have. We can visit the past, imagine the future, but we cannot live in either of these two places. Our lives happen minute by minute, second by second, moment by moment. It is in the here and now that our lives and Life intersect. For this reason the present moment is something very precious. We will never get another chance to live in it. It is unrepeatable. a deeply sacred gift from God.

This could be why Jesus said that, if we are going to experience God, we need to become like little children. Children live totally in the present. Next time you walk past a playground, take some time to look at the children. Watch them playing with each other. Notice how simple things like throwing and catching a ball, playing hide and seek or riding on the swings capture all their attention. Observe the absence of hurry. Once upon a time you and I were like that – able to enjoy the present moment. The good news is that we can rediscover this gift.

In a Nutshell : Most of us live too much in the fast lane. When Friday evening comes around we wonder where the week has gone. Everything seems a blur. Against this backdrop of our busy lives, the Serenity Prayer steers us towards the importance of the here and now. It is in the present moment that God wants to give us the gift of peace. To receive it we need to slow down, live gratefully and accept that we have only one life to live. Maybe then, even with the bear above us, a lion beneath and the groundhogs chewing away at our lifelines, we will enjoy the strawberry.

6th April 2021

Encounter Meditation Titus 2 : 11-12