Principle 2: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. -Matthew 5:4
Step 2: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. -Philippians 2:13
To Earnestly Believe…
According to dictionary.com, the definition of “earnest” is: serious in intention, purpose, or effort; showing depth and sincerity of feeling; seriously important, demanding, or receiving serious attention.
To “earnestly believe” something is to believe it with serious intention, depth, and sincerity of feeling. We can’t just halfheartedly believe the following statements in principle 2 and expect our lives to be changed. We need to be sold-out believers, fully convinced in our heart, mind, and soul.
Earnestly Believe that God Exists
Many recovery programs refer to a high power. In Celebrate Recovery, we openly acknowledge that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of Lords and the Name above all Names. It is impossible to continue through these steps and in recovery if we don’t believe that God exists. His very existence is what gives us breath and life. He created us and the world that we live in. (Genesis 1)
If you are questioning whether God is real, whether He really exists, I encourage you to do some soul searching. Don’t move onto the next parts of this recovery program before you are convinced that God is real, He’s alive, and He’s working in the lives of His believers every day. If you have questions, seek out individuals who are believers and ask them about their faith. Why do they believe? How have they seen God work in their lives and the lives of those around them? If they are in recovery, how has their recovery been affected by their belief?
Earnestly Believe that I Matter to Him
One of the key contributors to the cycle of addiction is a feeling of worthlessness. If no one loves or cares for me, why should it matter what I do to my body? If everyone expects me to fail, why should I even try to resist temptation? Satan loves to tell us that we are worthless, that we are unloved, and that we are unworthy of love. When we believe these lies, we often give up on ourselves and give in to our addictions. Once we give in to our addictions, the lies gain more validity and power over us, and the cycle continues as we spiral deeper into ourselves and we become weighted down more and more into bondage. Deeper and deeper we become consumed in our own darkness until we can see nothing beyond ourselves.
Even when we are in the darkness enslaved and bound to our addictions and false beliefs, we have a choice. We can choose to stay in the darkness, or we can choose to accept the love God and allow His light to pierce our hearts, minds, and souls. Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Did you catch that? While you were still a sinner, Christ died for YOU. You matter to Him. You don’t have to clean up your act, you don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. He loves you just the way you are, and He loves you so much that He died for you so that you might have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)
Even when our circumstances seem hopeless, we have hope because we have Jesus Christ.
O Lord, I have so many enemies; so many are against me. So many are saying, “God will never rescue him!” But You, O Lord, are a shield around me; You are my glory, the One who holds my head high. I cried out to the Lord, and He answered me from His holy mountain. -Psalm 3:1-4
Earnestly Believe that He has the Power to Help Me Recover
If you have any doubt that you are within reach of God’s help, read some of the miracles Jesus performed in the New Testament. He fed over 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and 2 fish; He turned water into wine; He healed people of diseases and blindness; He raised a man from the dead. Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from our sins and defeat Satan once and for all. After all of this, He has proved that He is more than able to help you recover from your hurts, habits, and hangups.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. -Ephesians 3:20
