CRA Christians in Recovery (anonymous)

i'm still looking for that charles stanley or adrian rogers type preacher around here. seems we'll never get one. in fact, just a couple of weeks ago, i was talking to a local pastor & he admitted it's highly unlikely we'll get one.

WHAT MATTERS TO GOD MATTERS TO US . . .Sunday May 18, 2025

Making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves – sorting out right from wrong, good from bad, and our part in past events – is an important foundation for building our life in recovery. God’s Word as recorded in the Bible is the standard against which all of us must measure our behaviour. Reviewing our thoughts, actions, and deeds against God’s standards will show us where we have gone our own way rather than following God’s way.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life— is not from the Father but from the world. The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever. 1 John 2:15-17


James 1 verses 14-15; 1 John 2 verse 16 Each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life- is not from the Father but from the world.
In our addiction, we participated in habits and lifestyles that were destructive because we either didn’t know, or didn’t want to obey God’s principles for life. We feared pain, craved pleasure, desired power, and simply wanted to have our own way in whatever we chose to do. We tried whatever we thought would bring us satisfaction and joy. Nothing we tried brought us lasting fulfillment.

A fearless and moral inventory of ourselves requires honest asking, honest reflecting, and honest assessment, of the values we currently hold compared with God’s principles. We review how our thinking and actions fell short of God’s standards. God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn us for what we have done, but to save us from it. We truly matter to God! As we practice God’s principles in all our affairs, we will build a meaningful and contented life with God’s blessing upon us.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there
is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

Partners in Hope Society / used with permission

My Heart is Open Today

I met someone new recently. It was a completely unexpected event. As I spent time with this person,
my heart was touched in a way that it hadn’t been in quite some time. A cascade of feelings came up
afterwards, and I was a little unsettled for a while. I continued to work Steps One through Three and
Ten through Eleven, every day, as I walked through all the feelings.

One thing I came to see is that meeting this new person and having my heart open up brought up other
times in my life when I opened my heart for someone, but that someone was just not available to me.

When I was a young girl growing up in alcoholism, my father was the first person who was unavailable
to me. He remained unavailable until he got into Alcoholics Anonymous and tried to reach out to me
when I was in my 30s. By then, my heart had been hurt so badly that I was not able to let him back
into my life. That was before I found my way to Al-Anon.

My mom was also not available. She was very focused on my father in the way that we all focus on the
alcoholic when they are suffering in their disease. Unfortunately, the family I was born into has been
deeply impacted by alcoholism. Although my father has long since passed away from the disease,
my mother, brother, and I have not yet found our way back to each other.

I know that I have also had my heart open in romantic relationships where the other person was
not available. I also know that before I found my way to Al-Anon, I was not available either.

I am available today, though. My heart is open, thanks to Al-Anon. Meeting this new person has
helped me to see that I have some grieving to do for the times I gave my heart to someone who
was not in a position to receive it. I am grateful for Al-Anon’s book, Opening Our Hearts,
Transforming Our Losses (B-29), which I can refer to as I work through my grief.

The gift of this experience is that my Higher Power is giving me an opportunity to see some of my past
patterns in relationships more clearly, and to do another layer of healing. It feels good, today, to have
the capacity to be in relationships with people who are available to be with me. I am very grateful
to the Al-Anon fellowship for these gifts.

By Anonymous July, 2016
Reprinted with permission of The Forum, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Virginia Beach, VA. source

My Heart is Open Today

I met someone new recently. It was a completely unexpected event. As I spent time with this person,
my heart was touched in a way that it hadn’t been in quite some time. A cascade of feelings came up
afterwards, and I was a little unsettled for a while. I continued to work Steps One through Three and
Ten through Eleven, every day, as I walked through all the feelings.

One thing I came to see is that meeting this new person and having my heart open up brought up other
times in my life when I opened my heart for someone, but that someone was just not available to me.

When I was a young girl growing up in alcoholism, my father was the first person who was unavailable
to me. He remained unavailable until he got into Alcoholics Anonymous and tried to reach out to me
when I was in my 30s. By then, my heart had been hurt so badly that I was not able to let him back
into my life. That was before I found my way to Al-Anon.

My mom was also not available. She was very focused on my father in the way that we all focus on the
alcoholic when they are suffering in their disease. Unfortunately, the family I was born into has been
deeply impacted by alcoholism. Although my father has long since passed away from the disease,
my mother, brother, and I have not yet found our way back to each other.

I know that I have also had my heart open in romantic relationships where the other person was
not available. I also know that before I found my way to Al-Anon, I was not available either.

I am available today, though. My heart is open, thanks to Al-Anon. Meeting this new person has
helped me to see that I have some grieving to do for the times I gave my heart to someone who
was not in a position to receive it. I am grateful for Al-Anon’s book, Opening Our Hearts,
Transforming Our Losses (B-29), which I can refer to as I work through my grief.

The gift of this experience is that my Higher Power is giving me an opportunity to see some of my past
patterns in relationships more clearly, and to do another layer of healing. It feels good, today, to have
the capacity to be in relationships with people who are available to be with me. I am very grateful
to the Al-Anon fellowship for these gifts.

By Anonymous July, 2016
Reprinted with permission of The Forum, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Virginia Beach, VA. source

Interesting. My parents were alcoholics. I was pretty much an alcoholic myself. I came close to death from alcohol poisoning. Jesus saved me just in time. I found that I no longer needed alcohol and I hated the fuzzy feeling that I once depended on.

Al Anon left my parents dependent. They still considered themselves one drink away from a relapse. I was, after two years, able to have a glass of wine and stop there. My parents were not saved.

The reason people drink or/and do drugs is the desperate pointlessness of life without God. I started because it was just what a young man would do, especially with the example of my father. I kept going because it was an escape, one that nearly killed me. Al Anon is great, but it only deals with the symptoms. How much better to know Jesus and so deal with the root cause of the problem.

There was alcoholism in my family as well, especially on my father's side. He came from a large family also, six boys and six girls. One of my aunts was such a raging alcoholic that my mom took in my cousin when she was close in age to my second oldest sister, so they were in their mid teens at the time, and that raised our number from 13 to 14 for a while. I still remember the Easter she spent with us... anyways, I went to a couple of ACOA meetings at some point in my recovery but they were not for me, nor was al-anon, really, or any of those other support groups for the support groups. But I loved AA and attended for years before crying out to God for help, which resulted in me losing the desire to use mind and mood altering substances. Not what I was asking for help with... I just wanted the pain to stop. But I was delivered from the snare of alcoholism and addiction after 24 years of use and abuse, and continued going to AA and started attending NA where I felt much more at home, so much so that even though I attended AA all those years and had home groups here and there and did various service work, I never took a cake until seven years and then again at eight, after which I relapsed, having not yet come to believe. Still all those years had improved my life in many ways... and I did eventually get clean and sober again, and surpassed my former milestone when I took a nine year cake at the end of 2019. I had never really invited people to a cake before but that time I did, and it was so special with some from my church family there! And then a few months later covid changed everything... Now I feel more at home in AA. There is such a very strong recovery community here and the AA meetings I attend are a lot like going somewhere to listen to people testify for an hour while they tell of all the wonderful things God has done and continues to do in their lives.