Believe in Recovery

Believe in Recovery

By Bill A. Gaspard, Certified Christian Life Coach & Biblical Counselor

Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.” Matthew 8:13



Trusting God sounds easy. Right! It’s all over our money, ‘In God We Trust,’ yet it seems that we put our trust in so many other things. I know for years I put my trust in ‘The Almighty Dollar” and good hard work ethic. That was all I needed.


Trust is the confidence and hope of what we believe.


What do you believe?

Do you believe that you are recovered from a hopeless state of mind?

Or do you believe that you will relapse someday?


Dwight Bain wrote a book called Destination Success, and in it he has a simple equation. B=B or Belief = Behavior. In fact he calls it Secret #5 in the Success Formula and that belief is your hidden source of inner strength. Your belief in God will bring you comfort during any experience of life. Dwight goes on to say, “When you and I decide to live exactly like we believe, we have a vast source of hidden power.”


So, what do you believe?

“I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” Hebrews 13:5


I believe that I will never take a drink of alcohol again as long as I have God leading me all the way.


I believe that I am a new creation and that Jesus gave His life for me so that I may live.


I believe that I am in recovery until the day I leave this flesh body so I trust God, I clean house, and I work with others until that day.


Here is how the belief formula works according to Bain


If you believe it you live it.



I believe I can make a difference = I work hard


I believe in the value of people = I treat others with respect


I believe body care is important = I eat, sleep, and exercise well


I believe God is a important part of my life = I worship regularly


I believe I am a person of great worth = I value my life and manage it wisely


I believe that God gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall receive eternal life = I Believe I Receive



Trusting God in recovery is big, and if we believe that God will take care of us then we will start to behave in the same way. If this formula works and you believe that you may drink again, you may drug again, you might look at porn again. Guess what? You will! Belief = Behavior

Take some time and write down what you believe right now. Things that you absolutely believe in your heart to be true. Then right down the behavior that you should be living next to that belief.
If you are in recovery do the same thing. Be specific. What do you believe about your recovery? Now share this information with your sponsor or accountability partner. Don’t trust yourself, trust God and believe. Show me your behavior and I will show you what you believe.
Thanks Coach Dwight!

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” Mark 9:23


About the author: Bill A. Gaspard is a Certified Christian Life Coach and Biblical Counselor, dedicated to helping God RECOVER His children through relapse prevention coaching. He is the founder of Christian Recovery Coaching- http://christianrecoverycoaching.com/
Recovery Coaching is one of the most effective ways to prevent relapse and get results in your life. A Christian Life Recovery Coach will come along side you to help you find your purpose and passion in life. We partner with our clients to unlock their God given talents and motivate them towards Christian leadership.

Idol Worshiper

It’s amazing how God works when we are even slightly paying attention. I was in the middle of writing a paper while working on becoming a Recovery Chaplain. I was facilitating a small group at our church with curriculum created by Andy Stanley called “It Came From Within.” Had just started reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover and reading a book by Edward T. Welch Addictions-A Banquet in the Grave, when I had some kind of crazy revelation. I was an Idol Worshiper! Worse. I had been doing it all my life. The bible is full of these stories and examples. There are idol worshipers, idol smashers, and re builders. Time and time again, story after story. I had a heart problem. I was writing a book about recovery coaching and found Edward T. Welch and The Old Testament coaching me. The parts that made the most impact to me in Edward's book was the sections on idolatry, adultery, and building walls of protection for our recovery. He goes as far to call addiction a “Worship Disorder.” And I was on a journey of the heart. We are all in recovery from something. When you read the story of Achan in Joshua it is just plain disobedience. Think about where you are at in your own journey and what idols you are still holding on to and lets high-five the ones that you have already smashed. We are going on an idol smashing rampage!


Ever heard of Achan? Probably not, read Joshua 7:16-26 then come back to this blog. Now read it again and put your name where Achan’s is, replace the robe, the coins and the bar of gold with the things that are controlling your life, ruining your life. Maybe you have been clean for a while from any substance and you need to replace it with anger, guilt, worry or any other emotion that is hidden in your tent. Not the greatest ending to a biblical story is it? Achan wanted this stuff so bad that he did not care if it hurt everyone around him. He hid these things deep under his tent. Joshua asks him, “Why have you brought trouble on us?” The Israelites found out about this, stoned Achan and his entire family, burned their bodies and piled a heap of rocks on them. They even called that place “Valley of Trouble” The end. Ouch! You ever been there, the valley of trouble? When you want something so bad that you could care less if your entire family would be killed over it. Its drastic I know, but that is what Edward T. Welch is saying about addictions. Did I want my family to die? No, but when I drank alcohol that is exactly what happened to my relationship with my wife, my kids and it blocked me from the love of God for years. God still loved me, but the idol was in the way. We can’t serve two masters. I wonder how long I would have lasted in the Old Testament days. Just one touch, one taste, need more need more. Pow! French fried human being. I would be on the 6 o clock news, another one bites the dust. Thank God for the gift of Jesus Christ and stories like this, that speaks to my heart.

By: Bill A. Gaspard, Life Recovery Coach
For more information on Christian Recovery Coaching visit
http://www.christianrecoverycoaching.com/

Honestly Search Your Tent

“As for you Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intentions of every thought.”
1 Chronicles 28:9

Honestly searching your tent means we are going deep, the place where Achan hid his stuff in Joshua 7:16. It was underneath his tent in the ground and his heart was there with it. That is where we are going, we are the tent today and our heart is the soil that Christ referred to in Luke 8:15. How is your soil? What has been hiding deep in it? Sometimes in recovery we here phrases like “moral inventory” or “searching fearlessly.” Whatever you want to call it, it really doesn’t matter to me as long as you know where we are going to search. We are going on a journey of the heart and we will find treasure worth keeping and we will find unusable junk. If you do not have a Christian brother or sister, mentor/sponsor by this point I recommend that you find one. Pray to God that he will send you a person that will guide you through this part of your journey. God wants to recover you so believe me when I say this, He will send you your guide. As a business man I had to do inventory monthly for many reasons, every single month we would count thousands of dollars worth of product. When we got to the food and beverage part of our inventory without question we would find something that needed to be thrown out. It was rotten, spoiled and of no use and should never be served to anyone again. We are no different. We have stuff that should have been thrown out years ago. Keeping bad product on the shelf makes everything a bit stinky in the tent. Searching your tent is really just taking inventory of what we got. The good and the bad! Don’t just search for all the bad stuff, there is so much usable product in your heart, God knows where. Let’s use it, God will, if you let Him.

If you are truly willing to search every ‘nook and cranny’ of your heart then you will need a light. This light will help you in those dark places that you will be digging around in. Christ is that light, the only light that can search this way.
 
“Search me, o God and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalms 139:23
 
By: Bill A. Gaspard, Life Recovery Coach
http://www.christianrecoverycoaching.com/