Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, this is Suzanne,
and welcome to Holy Recovery, a
podcast for believers recoveringtheir lives from the chains of
addiction.
Whether you're new to recovery,hoping to start, or have been
walking this journey for years,welcome.
You're among friends who get it.
I get it.
Now on to today's episode andyour weekly biblical shot of
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hope, encouragement and truth.
I hope you enjoy it, hi, andwelcome everyone.
This is Suzanne.
Are we close to God when we arein active addiction?
Can we be?
When our worlds revolveprimarily around what everything
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has us bound?
Can our relationship with Godstill be primary in our lives,
secondary?
Is it even on our daily map?
Today we are in the book ofJames, a book that offers so
much guidance, strength and hopeon our journey of recovery.
I used to not like James verymuch.
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I thought it was just a list ofeverything we shouldn't do and
I really didn't want to hear it.
You know why I didn't want tohear it Because I wasn't living
my life right and I wasconvicted.
Now I love James.
It's full of so many importantverses.
This is James, chapter 4,verses 7-10.
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So humble yourselves before God.
Resist the devil and he willflee from you.
Come close to God and God willcome close to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners.
Purify your hearts, for yourloyalty is divided between God
and the world.
Let there be tears for what youhave done, let there be sorrow
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and deep grief.
Let there be sadness instead oflaughter, and gloom instead of
joy.
Humble yourselves before theLord and he will lift you up in
honor.
Powerful words, hard ones,depending on where you are on
this walk.
God wants us to draw near tohim, to have an intimate, close
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relationship with us.
He is our Father, our Daddy.
He wants to love us like aparent and wants the best for us
.
Like a parent, I mean, don't weall want good things for our
children?
I mean, I do so, does God?
But to get there, we need torepent and be humble, and that's
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hard, and this requires acontinuous turning away from the
old self and a continuousturning toward God.
This passage is a roadmap of howto repent.
God tells us both what to doand what not to do.
We need to yield to God'swisdom and we need to stop
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thinking that we can live ourlives our own way.
That never works, absolutelynever.
We must do all the things thatGod says, not some of the things
and not the ones we like, andonly the ones we like.
All the things.
We cannot reject His words.
We can't oppose God, resist Himor, worse, take the enemy side.
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It's far too easy to comeacross a command we don't like
and twist it into something wedo like.
That happens all the time.
We must put our lives underGod's control surrender.
In verse 6, james says Godopposes the proud but gives
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grace to the humble.
The proud will not bend to thewill of God.
They want their own way.
They know best, they want to bethe ruler of their lives.
But when we humble ourselves,we will be willing to listen and
follow God.
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Surrender is the key to a lifeof recovery.
We have to stop trying to do iton our own.
We can't.
We have to stop trying to workit all out on our own.
We can't.
We have to stop trying tonegotiate or moderate or fit our
addictions into a workable boxin our lives.
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We can't, but God can.
We only need to try and let Himdo the rest.
Stop resisting God and startresisting the devil.
Submit your life to God.
To submit to the devil is toresist God.
So we need to fight the devil,withstand him, oppose him.
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We need to actively resist thedevil and his influence.
Stop listening to that littlevoice whispering in our ears and
tisying us and tempting us.
That's not God, that's thedevil.
So stop listening, stop givinginto the devil, stop letting him
drag you into sin by ignitingand fanning the desires within
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you.
There's never a good end tothat.
There are two promises in theseverses.
First, it's possible to resistthe devil.
It doesn't often feel like itdoes it.
Our desires and wants flare upinside us and it seems
impossible to do anything butgive in.
But we are not bystanders whocannot do anything about these
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temptations.
We don't have to throw up ourhands and be defeated.
We are not powerless.
We are not powerless.
We can resist the devil.
It's not a hopeless fight.
How often do we feel that wewill never win this fight?
How often do we think that wehave sins that we will never be
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able to overcome?
But we can.
The second promise is just aspowerful.
You can resist the devil andwhen you do, he will run from
you, he will flee.
Resist the devil and he willleave you alone, probably not
forever.
His greatest desire is todestroy us, so you can be sure
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he will keep trying as long aswe are breathing.
This is why we need to stay inclose relationship with Jesus,
so that the next time the devilcomes hanging around tempting
you and trying to turn you tosin, you'll know what to do and
have the strength and wisdom todo it.
The devil even tempted Jesusfor 40 days and 40 nights.
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Jesus resisted repeatedtemptations and he did it with
Scripture, he did it with theWord of God and finally the
devil gave up and fled.
We can do the same.
As people in recovery.
We know we will havetemptations.
That's just part of being inrecovery.
The devil knows our weaknessesand he will use it to destroy
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and kill us.
He wants to kill us.
He's our enemy and we won'tjust have one temptation.
Fight it and be done, I wish,but no, we will be tempted and
we will resist, and the devilwill flee.
We can fight and we can win,and that's good news.
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These verses in James call us torepent our sins, purify our
hearts, shed tears for what wehave done.
I've shed a lot of tears.
We need to recognize the extentof our sin, our separation from
him, and be sincerely sorry forit.
And when we do that, as hard asit is, he will lift us up in
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honor.
The ESV says he will exalt you.
That's pretty big.
He doesn't just leave us therein sadness and despair.
He lifts us out of it and liftsus up in honor, exalted, loved,
free your weakness, youraddiction does not have to be a
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lifelong battle, a day-to-daystruggle.
I truly believe that when yougrow in your faith, you keep
tucking the word in your heartand truly begin to walk closely
with the Lord.
The devil comes around less andless.
He knows it won't work.
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He'll still try occasionally,and usually when you least
expect it.
But it won't work and it won'tbe a prolonged battle.
It's so important to stay inrelationship with God, to read
the Bible, to find a church thatis biblically sound and
preaches and lives out the trueword, to surround yourself with
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people who love the Lord andlive like it, to let the Holy
Spirit come alive in your heartand your life.
Keep God first.
When he's there, nothing elsecan be.
When he's there, everything andI mean everything and your life
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will fall into place.
No temptation will rock you, noaddiction will destroy you, no
devil will sway you, no hellwill await you.
God first, and God only, not usGod.
Your life will never be thesame.
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I'll see you next time.
Thanks again for being part ofour community here.
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It Means the World to Me.
I'll see you next time.