Recovery Roadmap

Yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, “We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,” if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity . . . 2 Chronicles 6:37-38

Prior to going to treatment, I listened to a lot of useless sermons that addressed behavioral change. There are, I think, a lot of Christian speakers out there who’ve never truly found recovery from an addictive behavior, who haven’t let their lack of experience stop them from giving advice about the subject. Sure, they’ve got certain Bible passages that seem to back them up. They will quote the apostle Paul, who makes it sound like we’re immediately changed when we come to faith – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). And they will suggest that transformation is as easy as changing clothes – Put off your old self (Ephesians 4:22). But they’ve never done it themselves and so, they just weren’t helpful to me because they missed a fundamental truth about finding recovery.

Back when I was searching for the “How to” of recovery, I should have read the words of King Solomon from today’s passage. In it, he provided a roadmap, describing how we recover. As he prayed to God in front of an assembly of his people, Solomon declared that when we find ourselves trapped by our own self-destructive behavior, we must recognize that we are at fault, and then, we must confess this to God – We have sinned and have acted perversely. Then, we must repent with all our heart and with all our souls. This means that it is up to us to do whatever it takes to turn from the old behavior, violently cutting it out of our lives. If we’re still struggling with porn for instance, it is because we’ve not yet been willing to do whatever it takes to eliminate it from our daily routine.

To change radically requires making radical change. That’s what it means to repent with all our heart and with all our souls. This isn’t some magical step that we leave up to God. This, rather, is the work that we must put in to find recovery. For some, it will mean going to treatment. For some, it will mean getting off social media. If we want to recover from an addictive, self-destructive behavior, we will identify what we must do to eliminate that behavior. Then, we will do it. When we do this, God will forgive us so that we may find transformation and new life in him.