Avoidable Trouble (1)
Thursday August 20, 2015
Who wants trouble? None of us do and as we listen to God’s counsel there’s a lot of trouble we can avoid. Just as a loving and protective parent wants to safeguard their child they will teach them not to touch a hot stove, not to eat poisonous berries on a bush by the trail, even though they might look delicious, and not to interact with strangers on their own, so God provides warnings to us that help us live safely and avoid many problems.
Here are five dependable ways we can avoid a great deal of trouble in our daily lives. 1. God knows we are human and we will all fail one another and so He wisely invites us to learn how to forgive rather than let unforgiveness break down our relationships. God encourages us to treat bitterness like poison and avoid it. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. (Hebrews 12:15 NLT)
2. It’s not always convenient to stick with the truth but God clearly tells us that harm and trouble come when we try to go around His truth as revealed in the Bible, or hide the truth from others and lie about our circumstances and activities. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. (1 Timothy 6:5 NLT)
3. We need to follow a new way of life with God in recovery or we will experience more and more trouble. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Another slogan we often hear in recovery circles is, “If nothing changes nothing changes.” These simply echo what God’s word says: There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil. (Romans 2:9 NLT)
4. How many times did we think we were smart enough to get away with something that was dishonest and it didn’t matter to us as long as we weren’t caught? To avoid problems in our life in recovery this kind of thinking and behaving will need to change. God’s word warns us: People who wink at wrong cause trouble, but a bold reproof promotes peace. (Proverbs 10:10 NLT)
5. At some recovery meetings “temporary sponsors” are asked to identify themselves. They make themselves available to newcomers in the program because we all know that we need reliable help as we seek to move away from trouble into the peace and blessings of life with God in recovery. These situations are echoing God’s word which says: People who despise advice are asking for trouble; those who respect a command will succeed. (Proverbs 13:13 NLT)
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