God has invited us to life – the life He planned and created us to live. When we leave our old destructive lifestyle behind and move into recovery, God promises that He will guide us as we seek to know Him and follow His ways.
God gives us His word, the Bible, and His Holy Spirit to live in us. His word will be revealed to us by His Holy Spirit who will help us know and understand His ways. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13 NLT) All the training and equipment we need for healthy growth has already been provided. Our part is to realize we already have the tools, and commit to use them. We need to follow the instructions in the manual, in the way that God says works, and trust His direction.
At the same time, we need to be aware that we have an enemy, who does not want us to grow and become all God intends us to be. Jesus said that the enemy of our soul comes to steal, kill and destroy. However, we can take comfort in the truth that the evil one has power over us only as we choose to give it to him through disobedience and leaving our tools in the toolbox. If we fail to fill ourselves up with the fullness of God and choose not to be doers of His Word, we open ourselves to relapse.
Jesus said, “When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place.” (Luke 11:24-26 MSG) God is very clear that there is a battle going on within us and around us. The battle has already been won. The enemy has been defeated. The enemy, however, is still prowling around looking for someone to devour.
Today let us make a decision to love God with our whole heart and obey His commandments. Let us seek and follow His guidance and experience the satisfaction and joy of living in the victory that is already ours.
Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:3-5 NLT
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