Recovered and Recovering

“Hello, my name is Beth and I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ. And I struggle with…food issues, insecurity, selfishness, pride, people pleasing…” There's the raw honest truth! The second part is different every week, sometimes every day, because I'm a work in progress. But I'm glad to tell you the first sentence remains the same; no going back.

I haven’t arrived yet. For so many years, though, we in the Church acted as if we had. We got saved, sanctified, and self-satisfied. In our hearts, of course, we knew all the dirty little secrets about ourselves. Since no one was sharing, we thought no one else struggled with them, so we put on a good face and went around looking like we had it all together. All the while we were dying inside. The world wasn’t impressed, because they either saw through our sham, or they thought they wouldn’t be accepted into the club because they weren’t good enough.

When I was thirteen I asked Jesus to save me from my own self-destruction. I was born again—into a brand new person. He transformed me; my life now has meaning and purpose. He set me free from the weight of sin in my life. In a sense, I am a recovered sinner. But I am also still in recovery, because as long as I live in the flesh, I will continually be at war with the temptation to sin--to withhold love, kindness, and forgiveness, against emotions that rage within me, and my own mind and selfish will.

Apostle Paul said it well, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14).

So I’m a grateful believer who still struggles. But the great news is I no longer struggle alone, nor do I struggle in vain. If you know Jesus Christ you understand this too. His power is available to us when we’re weak. We have always been and always will be weak. We just haven’t always admitted it. 

I think it’s time the world knew that Christians, true Christians—not just those who slap on the title, but the ones who truly, deeply love and long for Jesus to be Lord of their life—are still in recovery, still fighting the battle. Our testimony is not how strong or perfect we are in ourselves, but how strong and perfect our Savior is. He daily works His transforming power in us to follow in His ways by His Spirit and His grace.

#overcomingsin #celebraterecovery #admityourstruggle #gratefulbelieverinJesusChrist