Recovery part 8
Being Used by God
In this series, we have looked at the transformation that occurs when a person yields to Jesus and seeks restoration—both with God and with others. Once again, let’s take a look through the steps as we begin examining Step 8.
R ealize I’m not God. I admit I’m powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable.
E arnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
C onsciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
O penly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
V oluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.
E valuate all my relationships—offer forgiveness to those who’ve hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others except when to do so would harm them or others.
R eserve 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.
Which leads to today’s …
Y ield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others by both my example and my words.
The Good News is good news for everyone! Christians do not have a monopoly on salvation. In fact, the very mission of God was given to us as well. Just as God came into this world to bring salvation, so too, are Christians called to go into the lands of lost people and share salvation. So any time someone says, “God can’t use me. Just look at my old life!,” they are denying the Truth of their salvation. Yes, that was your old life. But if Jesus has given you new life, then you are proof He can give new life to your friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers, too!
Remember that when we surrender to Jesus, it’s just that—surrender. Jesus wants to use you to bless others and help them find salvation, too. And, believe it or not, part of the reason for your past pain is for this very purpose. Today, we are going to look at four reasons for our painful past, and then we will take a look at a very famous sermon by Jesus to see how we can continue down the road of recovery while bringing others along with us.
Why Does God Allow Pain?
The age-old question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” has plagued humanity since the Fall. Today we are going to look at four general reasons, but one caveat is needed before we start. No one but Jesus can tell you why a specific bad thing happened to you. It might be possible on this side of Heaven to determine why a particular thing happened, but even then, we will not know the whole ‘why’ until we reach Heaven. I cannot, nor do I presume to be able to, explain every heartache in your life. And should anyone act like they can, you have permission to ignore them. Again, no one but Jesus can explain everything. But even still, we can identify four general reasons God gives us through Scripture.
The first reason is:
God gives us free will.
We have a choice. Brilliant minds still wrestle with this concept, but consider how we are made in God’s image. We are to demonstrate the truth and character of God in this world. That means that we are to love as He loves. We are to be meek as He is meek. We are to act justly as He is just. We cannot do those things without a choice to do the opposite.
True love is reciprocated. We cannot force others to love us, and it is not love if we try.
True meekness is reserving our strength to act compassionately. If we do not have the ability to be dangerous, it isn’t being meek—it’s being weak.
True justice acts in fairness and in self-responsibility. Without its opposite, it isn’t justice, it’s robotics.
Throughout Scripture, God offers His people a choice. In the Garden, Adam and Eve were offered two trees—one that would bring life, one that brought death. At the border of the Promised Land, God offered life and death to the Israelites—blessings or a curse. Today, we are offered eternal life or eternal death. We can continue to walk the path of self-destruction, or we can surrender to Jesus.
The second reason is:
God uses pain to get our attention.
Pain is a symptom of a problem. The depression, the anxiety, even the addiction and fear are not the actual problems. They are symptoms of the real problem. Something in your life is going wrong, and those symptoms are letting you know.
Consider how a good parent disciplines their child. If the child is going astray in how they act or how they treat others, the parent will discipline them. God will do the same for us. Sometimes the pain is a natural by-product of our actions, such as a child touching the stove, and sometimes God will allow pain to course-correct us.
Jonah had a very similar problem. God told him to go to Ninevah to let them know of coming judgement, but also to give them a chance to change. Jonah chose to go the opposite way. He wanted Ninevah to burn. God sent a storm to disrupt the boat and cause fear to the crew and passengers. The storm wasn’t the problem. Jonah’s disobedience was. It wasn’t until Jonah had the crew through him overboard that the storm ceased. Then, Jonah had to spend three days in the belly of a fish in order to get back on the right track with God. These were not pleasant situations, but they were necessary in order for God to have Jonah’s attention and obedience.
Allow me to share a Proverb that probably won’t make it on a Hallmark card any time soon.
Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.
Proverbs 20:30
The Good News Translation attempts to soften this truth with:
Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.
Proverbs 20:30 GNT
However you prefer to say it, the truth is still the truth. Sometimes course-correcting our lives can be painful, but sometimes the pain is needed to help our course-correcting.
The third reason for our pain is:
God uses pain to teach us to depend on Him.
I call this type of pain “exercising our spiritual muscles.” Those times when we get complacent, and we forget to lean on God’s power, we will inevitably find ourselves in a place where we have exercised all our power and still feel like we failed. It’s those moments when God gets our attention and says, “You should have been leaning on me instead of yourself.”
In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul shares with Corinth his experience in Asia. Notice how he describes the pain they felt.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
2 Corinthians 1:8-10
The pain Paul and his ministry partners felt in Asia made them ready to die. But that level of pain taught them to rely on God who raises the dead. God delivered them from the hands of death, and Paul knew they would continue to be delivered.
It may be that you are in a season of life that feels like the end is nigh—that all hope is lost. God wants you to remember that if you feel like you’re already dead, God raises the dead! Lean on Him. He told Isaiah,
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31
The last reason for pain is:
God allows pain in our lives to minister to the pain in others’ lives.
Look back at 2 Corinthians 1. We saw how Paul described the pain and its teaching power, but look back at verses 3-7.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
The same God who brought both suffering and comfort to Paul is the same God who allows our suffering, and will be the same God who provides comfort to us. Pain is an inevitable part of ministry because this world is broken. Remember the first reason for pain—it tells us something is wrong. When we are dealing with what is wrong in this world, it is going to bring about pain. But God does not leave us in pain. He brings comfort to us, and one of the main ways is by bringing people into our lives who have dealt with the same problems.
When we have surrendered to Jesus for healing and comfort, God wants us to be His conduit to bring healing and comfort for those who are facing the same problems we have.
Helping Others Find Jesus
As we look at using our past pain to help others find Jesus, I want us to look at two main passages. The first is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Turn to Matthew 5, and let’s read 3-14. As we read, consider how the traits Jesus described have direct connections to the Steps we have been looking at in this series.
The first set of verses center on our relationship with God and the Truth about ourselves.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In other words, blessed are those who realize the Truth—they are not God nor do they have the power to make their life manageable.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Those who embrace the truth of their situation will find comfort from the God who does exist and who does care for them.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who restrain their own strength over their lives in order to allow Christ to take control.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
If you want life and righteousness, there is Good News, you can have it!
The next set of verses deal with our relationships with others.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:3-9
Blessed are those who extend forgiveness to those who have hurt them, and blessed are those who have truly sought peace with others. The middle verse here is the thrust of having right relationships with others. In order to have a pure heart, one must seek reconciliation with God and then with others. They have to do everything they can to offer forgiveness and seek forgiveness. Once they have done that with a clean conscience, they can live at peace in purity of heart.
Verses 10-11 deal with the last step. Once we are living as God designed us to live, and are being used by Him to share salvation, it is inevitable we will face persecution. Those who continue in Step 8 are still blessed, even when they face persecution. Why is that?
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:12
Rejoice in the persecution because you are in good company. The prophets of the Old Testament, the Apostles of the New Testament, and the millions of Christians in the last 2,000 years can all share their testimony of suffering for the sake of Christ. Great heroes of faith always face some sort of persecution, because great heroes are those battling the sin of this world.
A life lived in faith and through faith is an example for others to follow.
So, we begin our service to God by remembering these traits. And then, we can turn to 1 Peter 3 for the last lesson for today.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
1 Peter 3:14-16
We can be blessed even if we suffer for righteousness’ sake. We keep honoring Christ the Lord as holy, and we remain prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the reason of our hope.
God wants you to tell your story of Recovery and Redemption to others!
So, how can we prepare to give this defense? The first step is to write down the answers to this series of questions.
What life experiences do you have? (List all the major ones, and maybe some minor ones)
What did you learn from that experience?
How did God help you through those times?
When did God intervene with my salvation?
Once you have that list, write the answers down in the form of a story. This is your testimony. You are giving eye-witness evidence to what God can do.
Next, ask yourself, “Who could best benefit from hearing my story?” These are the people that God wants you to share with. Once you have all those answered, it’s time to tell God you are ready. Tell Him you are available. The moment you make that decision, be ready! God is about to put you to work.
God is going to put some people in your path that you can share your story with.
As you tell your story, keep these three things in mind:
Be humble. We are all sinners and fellow strugglers. You aren’t saying you have it all together. You are simply sharing what God has done.
Be real. Be honest about your hurts and faults. It is healing for you and hope for them.
Be assertive. You don’t want to be too soft nor too harsh. It isn’t a lecture, and you aren’t begging. Just share your story, and don’t get bogged down in arguments. You are a witness, not an attorney.
If you are faithful to be ready and available when God calls you, He will be faithful to guide through the witnessing encounter, and you will see miracles happen. Not everyone will be receptive, but someone will, and that is a miracle.