Restoration Project, Lesson, Wednesday 6/21/2023, How to Succeed in Recovery – Part 2

Opening Prayer:  ___________________________ , Meeting Guidelines:  read, Weekly Update – How Is everyone doing?  How was your week?   Any major challenges, gratitude, or praises you care to share with the group?

Last week we talked about how to succeed in recovery and focused on some primary points made in James 4: 7-10 NIV.  Among during our talk we discussed the following key points for us to focus on. 

• Submit to God means to obey! It is our surrender to God in His will.
• Resist the devil. This means to flee the devil's kingdom, his values, and his wisdom and embrace God's kingdom, values, and wisdom.

• Draw near to God means purification, developing your personal relationship with God through the disciplines of the faith.

• Cleanse your hands refers to Psalm 24:4, "clean hands and a pure heart." Our inner purity guards us against moral defilement.
• Purify your heart. This means that submission to God produces humbleness which then produces right attitudes and motives.

As you went about your week this week was there anything that happened since last Wednesday that caused you to think of our discussion that you would like to share?  Group discussion.

Lesson:  How to Succeed in Recovery – Part 2

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.  James 4: 7 – 10 NIV

We continue the study of how to succeed in recovery this week with the sixth step suggested within this passage in James 4. 

Step 6: Allow God to smash the substance out of your life that hinders your growth, character and Fruit.

God wants us to make the fervent attempt to repent and get right with Him. He does not want us to lead a double life in trying to serve two contradictory paths in life because when we do, we are being hypocritical, creating broken relationships, shattered lives, and unmet opportunities. This leaves us in despair as the devil and our ways have no hope or purpose other than to steal what God has to give to us. We already have joy and completeness in Christ when our hearts and minds are centered on Him. So, the bottom line of this passage is the call to submit and surrender to God, allowing Him to be our only Lord and direction. Then, He will lift us up beyond our greatest desires and plans to a much greater plan and purpose in life! Thus, commit to smash the substance from your life that hinders your growth, character, and Fruit.

• Mourn/Lament/Grieve is a call to us for authentic repentance. When we do wrong, we will realize it because of the Law written on our hearts. We will feel remorse and guilt. This recovery process hurts; it is opening us up to the past. But keep in mind; the results are far better and worth the effort than the moments of pain we experience as we grow through it.
• Do you struggle to ask for forgiveness - to repent?  Do you find it is easier to ask God for forgiveness that another person?  When you realize you have wronged someone, have you found over time that the time it takes to apologize to another person has gotten shorter?  Group Discussion

• Wail/Weep means to express grief for our sins! We must see the seriousness of our sin, and in humbleness and honesty, sincerely be upset so we can fully accept His grace and forgiveness. There was a connection in the ancient Jewish world between grief and self-humiliation. At funerals, families would wail loudly; when they tired out, they hired others to continue on, to pronounce to the community humiliation to show their grief. In the same way, they could show true repentance, as wailing was the cultural thing to do to prove, by self-humiliation, the mourning of one's sins (Lev. 23:29; 26:41; Joel 2:12).
• 29 Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people.  Leviticus 23:29 NIV
• 41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin.  Leviticus 26:41 NIV
• 12 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Joel 2:12 NIV

• Repent means to completely and utterly turn away from our desires and deeds and toward His love and plan. Real, authentic repentance is sincere; we will regret our past behavior and be on guard in future relationships so that a moral and lifestyle change will result. It is God's desire that we repent of our sins and come to His way (Matt. 4:17; Acts 17:30; Rom. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:5; 1 Pet. 2:22-24)!
• 17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Matthew 4:17 NIV
• 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  Acts 17:30 NIV
• 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?  Romans 2:4 NIV
• What would real authentic repentance look like in your recovery? What can you do to stop combating God, stop fighting within yourself? Group Discussion
• Do you feel that since your recovery a “lifestyle change” has resulted in your life?  How is your life different now from when you were still active in your addiction?  Group Discussion

• Humble. This passage quotes Proverbs 3:34, and refers to submitting to the sovereignty of God. God's plan for our life is far better than any desire, evil or good, we could ever have. Thus, it is logical and beneficial to be humble in Him (1 Pet. 5:5)!
• 34 He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.  Proverbs 3:34 NIV
• 5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”      1 Peter 5:5 NIV
• Do you feel that you are more humble now than prior to finding recovery?  What does this look like?  Group Discussion

• He will lift you up. God alone deserves the right to be exalted and honored. This is an essential attitude before effective Christian character, maturity, and/or spiritual growth can be possible (Isa. 2:11-12; Luke 14:11).
• 11 The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.  12 The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled),  Isaiah 2:11-12 NIV
• 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  Luke 14:11 NIV

We are adopted into God's family and made new. So, because of what Christ has done, we should be willing to be obedient (Rom. 8:15).

·         15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  Romans 8:15 NIV

Obedience means that as Christians, we are to submit to what God requires of us; we are to follow His precepts regardless of the circumstances (2 Cor. 10:5; 1 John 1:7).

·         5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV

·         7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  1 John 1:7 NIV

·         Have you found over time as you progress in your recovery that you struggle less with obedience to God?  Group Discussion

When we accept Christ in our life, He needs to be Lord of our life. We are to take responsibility for our addiction and dependence, allowing His conviction to touch us deeply; then we can let go of our ways and surrender to His way. Then God will remove your defects of character! We must stop trying to manipulate God to give us our desires and needs, and concentrate on how we are to worship Him in all that we do, in total trust and total devotion.

This passage in James 4 is a roadmap of how to repent. God tells us both what to do and what not to do which will lead us to a victorious life that is transformed in Him. The call is simple: we are to submit, come near, wash, purify, grieve, mourn, wail, change, and humble ourselves. Each one leads to a closer relationship with God.  It comes from trusting our Lord and His plan, thereby taking the focus off the ways of Satan, the world, and us. We are to be vulnerable in confessing our sins and drawing to Him as LORD. When we are humble, God is glorified and He lifts us up.  When we remove our sinful attitude of pride, He is glorified.

So, what can we do? Do not laugh at sin; guard against it. Do not accept the worldliness of the world; rather, model maturity and character because you are being empowered by the Lord. We are to flee the world's influence while being the influencers of it.  He is greater than those who are His (John 3:30)!

30 He must become greater; I must become less.”  John 3:30 NIV

As you go about your week, remember this is a spiritual battle we are fighting!  Remember the enemy is cunning and baffling.  This life with God is an ongoing battle waged each day for each of us to either live for God or live for something else.   I pray that you experience the richness of a relationship with God in an increasing measure this week.  I encourage you to spend quiet time with God. 

Prayer requests?