Step: Support in Recovery

Okay, I’m going to start something new this week. I have been feeling there needs to be a change. The feeling is this: I want this blog to follow the current step each week in the Addiction Recovery Program. This week we will be reading the “Support in Recovery” document. This document highlights several ways to find support during the recovery process. Additionally, this document highlights how someone trying to find recovery can identify and work with a sponsor. Finally, this document highlights the role and responsibilities of a sponsor. It is a fantastic document! I highly encourage you to read it.

What stood out to me today when I read the document was how Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are our biggest advocates and supporters during the recovery process. When I started my recovery journey, I believed that I had to earn God’s love. I had traveled so far off the beaten path that I was hoping that God loved me rather than knowing that God loved me. I hoped and honestly wanted to believe, that I was a son of God. I struggled with the thought that God could love me given my past.

Then, in one of my first ARP meetings in 2017, I finally voiced my hope that I was a son of God and I hoped that He loved me. A man, who I consider a friend and wise man, looked me in the eyes and bore his testimony to me that he knew I was a son of God and that God loved me. I was touched by his faith and wanted to believe it so badly. I could feel in my heart, the pleading prayer of a child similar to the words of the primary song A Child’s Prayer. It goes like this: “Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer ev’ry child’s prayer?” I felt that question burn in my heart and finally went to God in prayer. I asked him if I was one of his sons and if He loved me. I will never forget the feeling I felt. I felt a peace and a reminder that I was one of his sons and He truly loved me.

One of the ways that God showed His love for me is through His Son, Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) It took me a minute to comprehend how much love that Jesus had for me. With all the love he possessed, Jesus stood in my place, and yours, to offer the ransom necessary to set us free from sin and death. Jesus is always reaching out and ready to support us through our recovery journey. As Isaiah put it, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5) Jesus did all this so we could be set free from sin! When I truly comprehended this, I began to see and feel the love that Jesus had for me.

The feelings I was experiencing came through the Holy Ghost. As John taught, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26) The Holy Ghost was teaching me the truth: God and Jesus Christ truly do love me. I will also say that I know the Holy Ghost loves me as well. How do I know this? Because the Holy Ghost teaches what is true and will never lead astray.

I know that support in recovery is powerful and necessary. I know that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are our greatest support. They are truly cheering for us to find success and will move Heaven and Earth to help us find recovery and ultimately come unto them!

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