Road To Recovery - Recycling My Pain

07/29/07
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Road To Recovery - Recycling My Pain
Genesis 50:20
Romans 8:28
The Tapestry of Life

Principle #8 – Yielded To God

A Summary of R.E.C.O.V.E.R.Y

1. “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.”
The Lord’s Prayer - “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Realize I'm NOT God! I admit I’m powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable.

2. “Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
The Lord’s Prayer - “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.

3. “Happy are the meek.”
The Lord’s Prayer - “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

4. “Happy are the pure in heart.”
The Lord’s Prayer - “Forgive us our debts.”
Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.

5. “Happy are those whose desire is to do what God requires.”
The Lord’s Prayer - “May Your will be done, may Your kingdom come.”
Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.

6. “Happy are the merciful.” “Happy are the peacemakers.”
The Lord’s Prayer - “As we forgive others.”
Evaluate all my relationships. Offer amends 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.

7. The maintenance step
The Lord’s Prayer - “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Reserve a daily time with God for a self-examination, bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and gain the power to do it.

The 8th Step of R.E.C.O.V.E.R.Y

Yield myself to God to be used to bring the Good News to others by both my example and my words.
"Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires"
The Lord’s Prayer - “For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen”

Why God Allowed My Pain

  • Volition
  • Inspiration
  • Reliance
  • Ministry

Volition = He’s given me a free will

  • Genesis 1: 27 “You were made in the image of God.”
  • Deuteronomy 30:19 TLB “I am giving you the choice between God’s blessing or God’s curse.”

Inspiration = Motivation - To get my attention

  • Proverbs 20:30 GNB “Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways.”
  • We don’t change when we see the light but when we feel the heat.
  • II Corinthians 7:9 TLB “I am glad … not because it hurt you but because the pain turned you to God …”

Reliance = To teach me to depend on Him

  • II Corinthians 1:8–10 TLB “We were crushed and overwhelmed … and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God who alone could save us .. and He did help us!”
  • You don’t know that God is all you need until God’s all you got.
  • Psalm 119:71 TLB “ … it was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws!”
  • The truth is, some things we only learn through pain.

To give me a ministry to others

  • II Corinthians 1:4 TLB “Why does God do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them the same help and comfort God has given us.”
  • God never wastes a hurt.

How To Use My Pain - Three methods:

  1. Testimony
  2. Intervention
  3. Proclamation

Testimony
I Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to give an account to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

Intervention
Galatians 6:1–2 TLB “If someone is overcome by some sin … humbly help him back onto the right path, remembering that next time it might be you who is in the wrong. Share each other’s troubles and problems, and so obey our Lord’s commands.”

Proclamation
John 20:21 “ Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Mark 16:15 “ Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

How To Share - Three suggestions:

  1. Be humble
  2. Be real
  3. Don’t lecture

Acts 20:24 TLB “But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus … the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.”

I have seen how they acted but I will heal them, I will lead them and help them and I will comfort those who mourn. I offer peace to all near and far. Isaiah 57:18