Wings Devotional Recovery -- May 20, 2009

INTEGRITY/TRUTH

STEP FIVE: Is the discipline of Confession.

STEP FIVE: I Admitted to God, to myself, and to another person the exact nature of my wrongs.

“Therefore Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” 

--James 5:16a

Just For Today – Step Five -- Essential

STEP FIVE: Is the discipline of Confession.

STEP FIVE: I Admitted to God, to myself, and to another person the exact nature of my wrongs.

“Therefore Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” 

--James 5:16a

“AA experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them.  If we have swept the searchlight of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has revealed in stark relief those experiences we’d rather not remember, if we have come to know how wrong thinking and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday gets more urgent than ever.  We have to talk to somebody about them.”

©   2005, AAWS, Inc.;
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 55

Wings Devotional© Daily Meditation Translation

is property of Wings Of Eagles Recovery©

Just for Today -- A Daily Devotional

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If we do not share what is inside us - we can never really heal from the past and let it go.  It will always be there consuming us.  Yes, it is human nature to surpress what hurts and those things we would rather not remember - but unless we begin the healing process by sharing with another individual these things, then we will forever be haunted by those ghosts and never successfully recover.

Working Step 5 is a freeing step and essential for the success of our recovery.  The thing that makes this step easier is God.  He has planned for us this very process of recovery and healing that will bring us back to the road on which He had intended for us all along.  He is our hope.  The Hebrew word for hope the first time it is used in the Bible is tiqvah and one of the root meanings of this word is the English word cord - - which means God is the hope the cord that we can grasp onto to keep us from sinking into the pit of our addiction.  Grasp your cord - Jesus today and face Step 5 with hope and confidence.

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places.

Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. -- Psalm 43:1-5

STEP FIVE -- Is the beginning of the end of MY isolation ...

RECOVERY MEDITATIONS

To help you understand what the Scriptures say about confessing to God, to myself and another person ... 

Genesis 38:1-30

Proverbs 28:13-14

Hosea 11:8-11

Amos 7:7-8

Luke 15:17-20

John 8:3-11

Acts 19:18

Acts 26:12-18

Romans 2:14-15

II Corinthians 10:3-5

Galatians 6:7-10

Hebrews 4:12-16

James 5:16

I John 1:8-9

Recalling My List Of Defects From Step Four.

1.  Self - Pity

2.  Self - Justification

3.  Self - Importance

4.  Self - Condemnation

5.  Dishonesty

6.  Impatient

7.  Resentments

8.  False Pride

9.  Jealousy

10.  Envy

11.  Laziness

12.  Procrastination

13.  Insincerity

14.  Negative Thinking

15.  Immoral Thinking

16.  Criticizing

17.  Fear

18.  Greed

19.  Stealing

20.  Lust

21.  Loose Talk & Gossip

Fifth Step Prayer

Higher Power,
My inventory has shown me who I am, yet I ask for Your help
in admitting my wrongs to another person & to You.
Assure me, & be with me, in this Step,
for without this Step I cannot progress in my recovery.
With Your help, I can do this & I will do it.

FEARLESS INVENTORY – MORAL INVENTORY

Make a grid, take a paper and pen, only between you and God – start with the seven classical areas – the 7 Deadly Sins.

1.  LAZINESS - In anything from prayer, bible study, work, etc.

2.  GLUTTONY  Over eating, eating the wrong things, something that just creeps up on you.

3.  GREED          Not just monetary, but like putting work before God, wife children, or anything before God.

4.  LUST              Natural sexual instinct that has gotten off track.  Magazines Internet, etc.  Even everyday television shows.

5.  ENVY             Wanting what I desire not what I need

6.  ANGER                   We often hide it to cover it up.

7.  PRIDE            We put ourselves in the CEO chair of our lives.  We want to appear bigger than we really are.  This sin can prevent you from successfully doing this inventory.

Remember to spend the same energy that we spend on the sin on reviewing our problems.  Seek to deal not with the symptoms but on the real problem that the Holy Spirit reveals in your life. 

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS STEP WITHOUT FIRST

GOING TO GOD IN PRAYER!

These sins are venom in our lives and ONLY Jesus Christ is the anti-venom.

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* As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

·        greater personal discipline,

·        worldwide persecuted Christians,

·        Hedge of protection to our children

·        Blessings to our spouses

·        Godly men in Government

·        Rest and Peace to our pastors

·        Your activities for the day.

Love One Another

Stand Together

Fight this war, no matter the cost

Pray for our children

Turn our hearts toward heaven

Seek to be one nation under God.

God Bless and Guide You in your Christian Walk Today

“The Lord bless you and keep you,
the Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
-- Numbers 6:24-27

You can help when no one else can."
  -- c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 89
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