Relapse

Principle 7: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Step 11: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and power to carry that out.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (Colossians 3:16). Are Christ words dwelling - living - in you? Are they living richly or living paycheck to paycheck? We want the words of Christ to dwell in us richly. We don’t just want to be in Christ, we want to live - REALLY LIVE - in Christ!

We are going to be talking about preventing relapse by having some personal time with God.

Reserve A Daily Quiet Time

Pick a time that will work. Set aside an amount of time that will work. Set an alarm on your phone. If certain days of the week have a different schedule, pick a different time for that day. Pick something small and achievable. Don’t think that it has to look the same every day. Don’t think it has to look like someone else’s time. The important thing is that you reserve some time for you and God.

Evaluate

Towards the beginning of this time evaluate yourself with humility.

Romans 12:3–17 ESV

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,... Let love be genuine. ... Never be wise in your own sight. ... give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Do a quick check. Am I hurting, exhausted, angry, resentful, or tense? Why? Be honest with your self evaluation. After that, we turn to the word.

Listen to Jesus

Psalm 1 NLT

1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

We must read the word and meditate on it. If you want to know what Jesus says, its in his word. There are scriptures for encouragement, scriptures for mourning, scriptures for wisdom, scriptures for learning and correction. Google which specific passages or books of the Bible have what you’re searching for. If you want some help on some suggestions, ask a minister or your sponsor. But we have to get the word in us if it is to dwell in us. And if it is to dwell richly, we must meditate on it. To meditate on scripture is to ponder it, rehearse it, even memorize it. Sometimes we may read large passages of scripture. Sometimes we may read smaller passages and simply anchor there for a while.

Alone and Quiet Time

In order to listen to Jesus and meditate you are goin to need quiet and isolation. You will be tempted to make exceptions, but don’t. The quality of your time is more important than quantity. Your time you set aside needs to be in a place free of distractions. Get your phone out of the picture. If you usually use your phone for Bible app and things like that, great! - but not for this. You need to pick a location that you can relax or feel cozy in. Maybe on the porch because of the fresh air. Maybe the closet floor because its actually quiet. You might try some different locations. Find a place comfortable and peaceful.

As a second tip, take a few moments before you dive in to your planned time with God. Take maybe 60 seconds to simply breathe and calm your body and mind. You will find that this can remove some distractions of the body and mind.

You want to enjoy this time, so do what you can to make it special. Get your special coffee, maybe the chocolate you treat yourself to for the day, bring your favorite chair to the office so you can use it during break - whatever! Think outside the box.

Plug into God’s Power

This is the prayer portion. We have to give it all to God. Even if we have completed the recovery process in a portion of our lives, we are still imperfect and still need to lean on God. There are a lot of cares and concerns of all the people in the world. Sometimes we try to shoulder more than we can and more than we ought. There is only one solution to the world’s problems and it isn’t me. It’s Jesus. I have to rely on him for the big picture and to give me wisdom to know the difference between the things I ought to do and the things I cannot change. In Jesus, there is the power for all things. Let’s not forget to take advantage of that.

Slow Down

Use your last moments to be still and listen if God has anything to say back to you. You may have some thoughts come to your mind, or you might not. If you do have some thoughts come to your mind, it is your job to discern if that that is your own, from the Holy Spirit, or from the Devil. Sometimes discerning those things requires the counsel of another brother or sister in Christ. But give space in your final moments to listen to the prompting God might give you.

Enjoy Your Growth

Someone challenged me, asking, “Are you enjoying your prayer time? Are you enjoying God’s word?” Many times in the past, my personal time with God was not enjoyed. It was a chore. I was going about it wrong. I was doing it out of duty or out of some desire to make myself better with works instead of seeing it as a way to be with my Lord and draw strength from him. That’s part of why you want your time and space with God to be special and positive in whatever ways you can make it. I probably wouldn’t like spending time with my wife if every time we got together we did homework. It will probably be the same if you do that with God. So make your time with God special in every way. Train your heart and learn to love that time together in every way.

We have been talking about having this special time with God, but this acrostic is also good general advice in a broader sense: Reserve a daily time, Evaluate yourself, Listen to Jesus, Quiet and Alone, Plug into God’s Power, Slow Down, Enjoy Your Growth.