Sobriety Devo - 1

Chapter 1

I get it… sobriety sucks.

At least that is what you may think now.

I mean… sobriety has NOT been part of your life for such a long time you have even forgotten what it looked like. Everything in your life is now built upon a different foundation… a foundation that has you hating the person in the mirror and eagerly looking for a loophole to get high or tie one on. But, you know that it is time to change.

I want you to think about those words. TIME TO CHANGE.

What was it? What happened? What caused you to come to the place where you know that you can’t continue in this way. I’ve heard lots of reasons why:

I woke up in jail last Thursday and I didn’t enjoy ‘three hots and a cot’.

I saw the look of disappointment in my kid’s eyes and I can’t stop seeing it.

I have lost everything that ever mattered to me.

I don’t like something else controlling my actions and thoughts.

I don’t value myself any more.

I got drunk on Monday and woke up on Wednesday in my neighbor’s backyard in a puddle of my own urine.

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What’s your reason? What brought you to this place? What caused you to pick up this book? What caused you to start this journey?

Well, we are going to spend the next 30 days together and I want to one point across really quick...

YOU CAN DOOOOOO IT! (Spoken in the voice of that weird guy from Adam Sandler’s movie “WaterBoy”. If you have never seen it, imagine Rocky’s voice. It’s equally as inspirational.)

There have been so many people who have gone on this journey and are doing great today! There are people who have picked themselves up from the puddles of piss to impact the world in profound ways. And… that next person can be you!

I can make you a couple guarantees right from the start:

It’s going to be tough.

You are going to want to quit.

Your ‘addict mind’ will try to trick you and control you.

You may fall down a time or two on the journey.

But, I want to remind you of a Proverb that has helped many on this journey.

“For the righteous falls seven times and rises again...” Proverb 24:16a

Proverbs 24:16 ESV

for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

Proverb

Now, you may read that and say… “Well, that rules me out! Righteous?!?! Not me.”

Well, let’s dig a little deeper.

This word literally means ‘one in right standing’ and is used over 400 times in the Old Testament. It was used for people in the Bible like Noah, Abraham and David. These are people who were following God and being obedient and doing the right things. They were on God’s path and He rewarded them with a “Righteous” award.

Again… you ain’t no Noah. You haven’t agree to build a yacht out of gopher wood and save the world. You aren’t an Abraham having sex at 100 years old, knocking your wife up and raising a newborn when you’re in triple digits. And, you surely aren’t a David, standing up to a guy three times your size with a couple stones and a wicked curve ball. That’s not you.

But, you can grasp righteousness.

You see, when we put our faith, hope and trust in Jesus… we change. When we accept His grace, love and kindness into our lives… we move from a place of darkness to light… a place of death to a place of life. I love what Paul said in his second letter to a misfit church in Corinth.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Let me ask you this question on day one… “Are you IN Christ?”

Have you surrendered all to Him? Have you given Him your past, present and future? Have you turned over your will and care to Him?

This is a concept that is truly understood in the 12 Step tradition.

By Step 3, you are learning how to live in ‘surrender’.

Maybe that is your step for today. Maybe it’s just a simple prayer.

Step 3: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

“God, today I turn my will and my life over to You. Take my life. It’s yours.”

It’s a great first day if we can begin to live in this new reality.

In fact, if we were to keep reading in the book of 2 Corinthians, you would come across this amazing verse:

“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

There comes those words again… IN HIM.

How do we become ‘righteous’? By being in Him.

When we surrender all to Jesus, He comes and makes His home in us. () Everything changes and we don’t have to walk this life alone.

As you cling to God, YOU are the righteousness of God IN Christ Jesus. You may not feel like it today… but you are. In fact, that’s going to be our REPEATABLE TRUTH today.

“I am righteous.”

Now, let’s go back to our Proverb that started our daily journey.

“For the righteous falls seven times and rises again...” Proverb 24:16a

You are righteous… in HIM.

You may fall. You may slip. You may have a rough day.

But your failure isn’t in the SLIP. It’s in the NOT getting back up.

I need you to make me a commitment. No matter what the next 30 days looks like, you are going to keep getting back up. You are NOT going to fail. You are going to stay engaged and recognize when things aren’t going the way you want and respond accordingly.

GET BACK UP.

These words are for you. Every day. 1000 words… that’s it. The average person reads 300 words per minute. So, in under 5 minutes you can read your daily devotion. So… get committed. We are beginning a journey together.

You can dooooo it!

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”