In our 12-month residential Spiritual Recovery Program at Helping Up Mission, we have Christians, Moslems, Jews, agnostics and atheists. We accept them as they are, and we expect them to accept us as we are — a Biblical faith-based recovery program.
Consequently, we have some interesting and lively discussions in class. Almost always we get around to saying something like “if there really is a God, then these are the kinds of things you would expect Him to do. And guess what – He does!”
Brad has been clean 8 days – been here 8 days! Yesterday he asked if he could say something in class. He told about his years of addiction, emotional struggles and attempts at recovery before. But the previous evening Brad did something he’d never done before. The best he knew how, he surrendered to God.
He went on to describe what he could only understand as a supernatural peace that settled on his mind. Sort of sounded like the “peace of God that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) and “accepting hardships as a pathway to peace” (Serenity Prayer).
Brad said it just can’t be a coincidence that this special peace – which he had never experienced in his life – only happened after he surrendered to God for the first time in his life! Of course, such a surrender is a one day at a time commitment, but Brad just got a good dose of it!
I guess it is true – if there really is a God, then there really are things you can expect Him to do. And He does them!
One Day at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Deputy Director