GETTING OFF TRACK BY REFUSING TO LISTEN

To be responsible recovering addicts, we need to have regular contact with God and seek His wisdom and His will for our lives. We need to ask God to give us understanding of the Scriptures and pray for His help in applying His principles in all our affairs.  It is easy to pick up our old way of doing things and then irresponsibility kicks in and starts us on a downward slope.  Our sponsor or a trusted friend may have spoken to us about how we were getting off track, but we refused to listen. Before we knew it, we were behaving in ways that were not in keeping with our new life with God in recovery and found we ourselves moving towards relapse. 

As a dog eats its own vomit, so fools recycle silliness.  See that man who thinks he’s so smart?  You can expect far more from a fool than from him. (Proverbs 26:11-12 MSG)

Some of us deceive ourselves by justifying our behaviour and the bad choices we are making.  We may have hurt someone with angry words or behaved unacceptably.  We may have stayed silent to avoid dealing with a situation where gossip was being spread.  We may have then foolishly spread the gossip we heard.  We are accountable to God and to those in authority for the unwise choices we make. If we were to judge ourselves, could we say we are loving our neighbour as ourselves? 

When you run out of wood, the fire goes out; when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.  A quarrelsome person in a dispute is like kerosene thrown on a fire.  (Proverbs 26:21-22 MSG)

If we humbly ask God to help us change those things we can, God will enable us to do so and will help us live in the wisdom of His word.  Choosing to actively live in loving relationship with God and with our neighbours will empower us to live a joyful life which no one can take from us.  As God blesses us abundantly, we will in turn be a blessing to others. 

Prayer: Loving God, I need Your wisdom and understanding to change my uncaring ways and actions.  My desire is to love You with all my heart and to love my neighbour as myself, please help me to do so.  Amen