Embrace the truth that God watches, protects, guides restores, and gives sufficient grace for you to continue to move forward in recovery. There’s a need to share, but also a need to meet people where they are, not where we expect them to be.
With our tongues, we bless God our Father; with the same tongues, we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on.
none of us know who we are influencing with gods help: There is a story of an Atlantic passenger lying in his bunk in a storm, deathly sick—seasick. A cry of “Man overboard!” was heard. The passenger thought, “God help the poor fellow. There is nothing I can do.” Then he thought at least he could put his lantern in the porthole, which he did. The man was rescued, and recounting the story the next day, he said, “I was going down in the darkness for the last time when someone put a light in a porthole. It shone on my hand, and a sailor in a lifeboat grabbed my hand and pulled me in.” Weakness is no excuse for our not putting forth all the little strength we have, and who can tell how God will use it?
NONE OF US KNOW WHO IS WATCHING US IN RECOVERY: In the movies and on television, previews show coming attractions. Designed to create interest, the previews always show the most dynamic and dramatic parts, such as the chase scenes, love scenes, and fight scenes in the show. The whole point of the previews is to whet our appetites for the upcoming programs.
Someday a big show will come to town, and Jesus will be the star. It will be a worldwide performance, and the cast will be sensational. But until then, He has left previews of coming attractions in the world. He has left His church to provide clips of the major production that is to come.
Unfortunately, some of the clips are so bad that people have little interest in attending the major performance. The church has been so weak in demonstrating the power and wonder of the main feature that fewer and fewer people have an interest in it.
It is time for us—to start showing previews that are worth watching: previews to the world that will prompt the questions, “Where can I buy a ticket for the show?” Then we can respond, “No purchase is necessary. We are giving the tickets away. The price has already been paid.”
CONSIDER YOUR INFLUENCE: A little girl strolled into Bible class one morning. Her hands were dirty, her dress was soiled, and there was a curious dirty ring around her mouth. Her teacher asked her how she had gotten so dirty so early in the morning. She explained that on her way to Bible school, a neighbor boy asked her to blow up his wading pool. She blew and blew until she had enough air to make the rubber wall stand up. Then, the boy picked up the hose and started filling the pool.
The little girl asked him why he didn’t come to Bible school with her. He told her, “No, I want to play in my pool.” Then, with her pretty blue eyes looking straight toward the teacher, the girl said, “I pulled the stopper out of the air hole and let the air out so the pool would go down because if he didn’t come to Bible school with me, I didn’t want God to blame me for it!” As you consider the influence your life has on another, could God ever blame you for their conduct? “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”
Who has interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God who has done it, for he is the one who has called you to freedom in Christ. But it takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others. Galatians 5:7-9
sharing my experience, strength and hope. 