My Refuge

By Brookelynn Harper, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Landing Resident and Devotional Team writer

“I am sitting propped up on the door-jam of my closet. I have clothes strewn to my right, a pile of unwanted shoes to my left, books scattered across the floor behind me, laundry on the bed, dishes lined up on the counter to be washed, trash leaning against the wall to be taken out, a shower to be scrubbed, empty boxes that need to be stored away. I have a laundry list of things that I need to get done tomorrow, and I’m only halfway through what I needed to do today.”

This is an excerpt of what I wrote in my prayer journal yesterday, as I was sorting through what was bothering me that day. After I had written it all out, I felt exhausted just from writing it. I blankly stared at what I had written for a good ten minutes. I wanted to laugh. My chores had truly spiraled out of control, and I didn’t know when I was going to be able to get them done.

Now this may be a silly example, but I have had many times in my life where I became overwhelmed. It might be tasks, relationship tensions, or calamities that left me feeling like the rug had been yanked out from under me. A lot of times this feeling of being overwhelmed would make me feel ashamed – in my chores I knew that I could have been doing laundry, but I chose to do something else instead. If not ashamed, it would make me feel guilty – my roommates are going to be angry because I haven’t picked up after myself well. And then I would feel silly about feeling overwhelmed by t-shirts and spatulas, or whatever else had sent me down this spiral.

But this time, I remembered a verse that God has been using to speak to me this week:

Taste and see that Yahweh is good;

blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 34:8

Yahweh – the LORD – is good. I had taken myself so seriously and focused on everything that I could have done differently. But I had forgotten what He had already promised me. I am not at this alone.

In Second Corinthians (12:9-10), it says

“And he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, because the power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, rather I will boast most gladly in my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may reside in me. Therefore, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in calamities, in persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

With all the little things that I had let overwhelm me, I was feeling weak. How grateful I am that Jesus can work in and through a mess like me! And laundry and shower scrubbing are some of the more amusing things that drag me down – but His steadfastness does not end there. In any difficulty, great or small, I can remember the goodness of God, and be comforted in the taste of it. I can take refuge in Him. And I can know that my weakness only helps to show His perfect power and grace in my life.

And with that renewed knowledge I was able to laugh, finish my prayer, and start sorting clothes with confidence.

Click HERE to listen to "Stand In Your Love" by Josh Baldwin


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

Guidelines are there for a reason

Anyone who has participated in a Step Study or a small group through Celebrate Recovery has heard the five small-group guidelines. They’re supposed to be read aloud before each meeting starts, just to remind everyone or to inform any newcomers. Most of the guidelines are obvious and make perfect sense on the first reading. Anonymity is vital and as people who are submitting to God as our Higher Power, we should realize that we are in no more a position to “fix” each other than we are to “fix” ourselves. There’s one guideline that puzzled and even annoyed me at first, that pesky no. 2. “There is NO cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.” At first I really didn’t understand the guideline. “Did they seriously need to tell us not to talk to each other while someone was sharing?,” was my thought. But as the guideline was explained further, I better understood. We ar...
Read more