Why Look At My Past?

I was visiting with a friend recently and they asked, "if God's Word says, "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead" Philippians 3:13 Then why do we take time to bring up our past and focus on it?" Great and valid question. The purpose of doing a moral inventory is not so we can wallow in it but to identify things from our past that may be holding us back. "Test me, O Lord , and try me, examine my heart and my mind" Psalms 26:2 "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." Lam3:40 "Throw off everything that hinders.." Heb 12:1 This process is about helping us learn where we have stuffed some unresolved stuff, face it, heal from it and allow our future to be different. When I bury my head in the sand and try to act like nothing happened in my past, then it lingers and becomes my future. Paul is telling us, that he doesn't have it all figured out but he is moving forward. Paul had to face the fact that he was once a Saul and did horrific things. God did some amazing things in his life as a new creature, with a new life and purpose. Moral inventory is hard, but so worth it. If you are in the middle of this right now, stick with it and keep pressing forward. This process is not about living in the past but moving forward to a better future as we "return to The Lord". Rodney Holmstrom

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the
Read more

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha
Read more

Verbal Reality--Why you can't believe an addict and what you can do as a co-dependent

I recently came across the below article when websurfing for information about verbal reality, a concept a friend introduced me to last year during a time I was trying to figure out is someone was telling me the truth or not. The below article is specifically for Porn addiction, and comes from a very good website, but I've found it true with all addictive behaviors. If you've never heard of Verbal Reality, and you question whether or not your spouse is being honest, this is a good way to help you sort it out, and a great tool for your recovery. ______ Consider This. (from http://www.pornaddicthubby.com/Help-For-The-Addict.html) Addicts of any kind live in a "verbal reality." This means if they say it, it is true and if they say it passionately enough even they believe it is really true. Men who have an addiction to porn live in a verbal reality. A sex addict believes what he is saying while he is saying it. Your most helpful tool in dealing with verbal reality is look
Read more