New Life
Bible Reading: 1 Peter 2:1-3
We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
Recovery often brings us into a new life. Everything may seem so new to us! We may feel like a little child, somewhat helpless and not yet able to take care of ourselves the way other people do. A new life is great, but we still need to grow up. As we continue to take personal inventory we can monitor how regularly we are feeding ourselves on God's Word, which will help us grow. We can also keep our eyes open for the feelings and behavior patterns that characterized our old life. It's not unusual for some of them to crop up again.
The apostle Peter wrote, "So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord's kindness" (1 Peter 2:1-3). Here is another rendering of Peter's words: "If you have tasted the Lord's goodness and kindness, cry for more, as a baby cries for milk. Eat God's Word—read it, think about it—and grow strong in the Lord and be saved."
Our old patterns of hatred, pretending, dishonesty, jealousy, gossip, and the like have to be dealt with as they arise. They will show up! But as they do, we need to get rid of them, one by one. We also need to feed on God's Word every day so that we can continue in to grow in our new life.
The longer we continue in recovery, the more we want to recover.
To purchase this devotional please visit New Life Ministries
Taken from The Life Recovery Devotional: Thirty Meditations from Scripture for Each Step in Recovery by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop. Copyright © 1991 by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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