Christ-centered recovery programs work with great success. The question isn’t why but rather how. The answer is quite simple. What lies at the center of a faith-based recovery program and Online Christian Counseling programs is hope. Hope that is grounded in Jesus Christ as the main conduit to redemption and a new life.
1. Trauma, Abuse & Pain. Often times, addiction is fueled by past trauma, abuse, and pain endured. In a faith-based recovery program healing from the past will lead you to identify who you are in God and who you are meant to be.
2. A bruised identity. If you are battling substance abuse, you’re most probably battling identity issues. In Jesus and his word, there is a discovery process that unfolds. You learn that you are not what your past says you are, you are not the brokenness that surrounds you. Layers of lies about what the world says you are, begin to fall off. You’re not your circumstances, and you aren’t the product of your addiction. You are who God says you are. You are a child of the Most High, and at the very, core, you must understand that you were destined and designed to be light.
3. You are light. When you enter a covenant with God, there is a sensation of enlightenment. When you discover your identity in Christ, and you realize that you have a chance at a new life and becoming whole again, there’s hope. Hope that marks your soul. Hope that isn’t easily brushed away, but instead becomes spiritually engraved in the heart.
4. Confidence. God’s word transmits confidence that when we trust that he who defeated death is with us, then we too can conquer and overcome behaviors that are killing our spirit and destroying our lives.
5. Higher power. In a faith-based recovery program, you must look at reaching towards a greater power than yourself in order to restore mental and emotional stability, and in a Christian recovery program that higher power has a name, it’s God and Jesus Christ. To connect to this higher power, prayer is necessary, and in praying and committing to it daily, a habit is created. Why is a prayer life important? It’s important because a life without prayer leads to spiritual lethargy, and when we walk around with emotional issues, and anger controls us, we inevitably find conflict.
Nurturing a prayer life develops our faith in God. This alone, helps us develop a new narrative of ourselves different from who we’ve always been because, in Jesus, we are born again. Clinging to this reborn notion leads to hope for a better tomorrow and a better future.
6. A focus on forgiveness. To be God-centered is to be in tuned with forgiveness and mercy. One of the most important steps in recovery is the ability to forgive those whom have hurt you and to learn to forgive yourself in the process. Without the ability to forgive, we are imprisoned by shame and guilt. These emotions are extremely powerful, and they paralyze us from seeking help. Mercy is a top characteristic of God’s nature. He is faithful and extends mercy onto those who find it within themselves to repent and forgive. Forgiveness leads to living a life of freedom.
7. Spiritual Healing. Substance abuse recovery is not only a physical journey; it’s also a spiritual one. A faith-based recovery program allows you to do soul and spirit work via prayer and worship. You cannot heal spirit and soul wounds, which are internal issues, with external remedies. Spirit and soul wounds are healed through full engagement to spirituality.
Jeremiah 30:17, “For I will restore Health to you and heal you of your wounds,” says the Lord. This is a promise of Jesus. Jesus heals and in relationship with him is where we encounter restoration.
8. Worship and Relationship. The place you spend most of the time isn’t people or places; it’s your mind. Chaos erupts when we aren’t spiritually healthy, and our mind isn’t a peaceful place of rest. On a practical level, praise and worship creates an atmosphere that helps put our minds at ease, but on a spiritual level, worship and praise satisfies the soul. Worship sessions with God repels negative emotions because, in God’s presence, the darkness in you cannot survive. It’s in moments of praising God with words and hymns that your faith is strengthened, and God’s purposes are revealed.
9. Weaknesses aren’t shunned. To the world, a weakness is viewed as a loss, but for God, weaknesses are opportunities for him to manifest his power.
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
When you face addiction, shame is at the forefront of your emotions. So, when an addict is encouraged to speak about his/her shameful truths via a Christ-centered recovery program, the idea of surrender is welcomed. Why? Because weaknesses can be power in the hands of God. A weakness is assigned a different perspective and becomes a channel for God to work in us and through us.
10. Surrender. As your Christian recovery coach, I understand firsthand how complicated surrender can be. It’s difficult to surrender your mind to be introduced to the promises that God has for your life. To surrender to a God that you’ve never known or have turned away from.
Think of it like this… You are a seed, and at first, you feel buried, surrounded by darkness as you go through the motions of detox and spiritual healing. But then, as you surrender to prayer, worship, and your overall recovery journey, your faithfulness will suddenly lead you to experience, a breakthrough.
Do you know what comes after a breakthrough? You see the light at the end of the tunnel, only it’s not a tunnel, you’ve broken out of the seed’s shell and are experiencing growth, and the bearing of good fruit comes next.
Do you see? You were never buried; you were planted in the rich soil that is God when you surrender to a relationship with him and his recovery process for you. When you surrender, you view life via a lens that isn’t distorted.
You are a seed that is buried waiting to rise above the ground.
Ezekiel 17:8 “It was planted in good soil beside abundant waters, that it might yield branches and bear fruit and become a splendid vine.”
11. The promise land. There is no such thing as a promise land for those whom find themselves imprisoned by their addictions and especially for addicted who feel they can get through their addition in their own power. A faith-based recovery program provides consistent affirmations via a God-centered healing process.
What does this mean for you? That there are promises from God for your life that you must know and speak, but you lack faith. Faith will allow your spiritual eyes to see that there are plans of abundance for your future, and there are blessings that God has yet to release onto your life. All you need is faith.
Deuteronomy 1:8 “See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to you—”
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