Rest. God has given me rest today. A time to recover from the journey of recovery. This evening I sat across from my counselor, gave her like ten minutes of celebrations, and said, “That’s all I got. What do you have?” Naturally she had plenty of questions to keep us talking.
Yesterday, when I spoke with the small group leaders, I shared how I would explain CR if I had to condense it to one sentence. “Celebrate Recovery is a support group where you learn how to get all your support from God.” What I meant is at CR we learn how to allow God to meet our deepest needs instead of trying to get it from people or our bad habits or hangups.
Something was said coming out of yesterday that made me wonder if I am right. I started thinking about my own experiences with people, born-again Christians, speaking into my life. In Joyce Meyer’s words, I used to go to the phone not the throne. I would call two or three of my closest friends and get all kinds of advice about how to get past what I was trying to get past. Even after only calling one person, I was always more confused than before the call. Which is why I called the next person. It was such a vicious cycle. It was awful. It never helped me grow past anything.
My experience at Celebrate Recovery has been the opposite. The people there always point me back to God. The message points me back to God. Sharing in the small group helps me open a deeper relationship with God. After a year at CR, I go to the phone before the throne about 1 out of 20 times now instead of the exact opposite statistic. My life has been transformed by learning to go to God first and receive from Him.
Naturally, the Scriptures say wisdom is found by consulting many counselors. Wisdom might be, but healing is not. Anyway, that is where my contemplations brought me today. Am I right? I have no idea, but I am going to keep going to Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace. I like peace.
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30
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