Meditations on "Encouragement"

The contrast of destructive self-centeredness in active addiction versus the healthy lifestyle of supporting one another in recovery is clearly expressed in Promise 7 of A.A:- We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Learning and growing in our recovery and sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others, are ways we fulfill this principle

True friends watch out for each other, share with each other, and even make sacrifices for each other.

Real change happens for us when we don’t just get to know God’s will but actually put it into practice.

Staying away from shortcuts will bring us to our desired destination of a meaningful new life.

Our God is a God of order and when we live in the structure and order He has planned, things go well for us.

God created us to live for Him and has a specific plan for each of us. When our conscience is shaped by a wounded spirit, we will find we are constantly looking for affirmation and mechanically acting out of people pleasing motives, rather than behaving out of love that pleases God.

God can heal every heart-wrenching wound left by someone who let us down.

Integrity can and will be developed in a person who lives according to the Word of God and whose confidence is in God alone.

Outside of God, we can’t even maintain the desire to do what is right let alone find the strength to act on what we know we ought to do.

Making amends is a test of our integrity to honour others above ourselves.

Only obedience to the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit can keep us from returning to familiar patterns.

We must seek God and give Him control in revealing what needs to go, as well as when, and how.