{"id":7285,"date":"2013-01-14T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T05:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=7285"},"modified":"2013-01-14T00:04:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T05:04:17","slug":"lifes-healing-choices-getting-help-the-hope-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/14\/lifes-healing-choices-getting-help-the-hope-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"“Life’s Healing Choices” – Getting Help – The Hope Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Psalm62_5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In our first week, we prayed for God to give us the courage and willingness to admit we are powerless.\u00a0 As you admitted you are powerless, how did it impact your life last week?\u00a0 When I began admitting that I am NOT God and I am powerless, I went through a multitude of emotions: anger, sadness, guilt, relief and indifference.\u00a0 Turning over the control of my life was taking the life, as I had known for years, and realizing it was a false system of belief.\u00a0 I had to accept the changes I needed to make. This week we are going to talk about what happens after we realize those changes need to be made.\u00a0 We may begin to mourn our past mistakes and even mourn the fact that we have turned our control over to God. Some of you may say, FORGET IT<\/strong><\/em>!! I will admit I am not God, I mean, everyone knows <\/i>they aren\u2019t God.\u00a0 But this \u2013 it\u2019s painful.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stop right here and look at the title to this chapter \u2013 Getting Help, The Hope Choice<\/b>. \u00a0Ok, that sounds a little better.\u00a0 Then go to the E in RECOVERY which is Earnestly believe that God exists ( yes I can do that) and the I matter to Him (so glad about that) and that He has the power to help me recover (I sure hope so).\u00a0 It is at this point that we search and find access that He is the One that wants to fill our lives with love, joy and peace.\u00a0 He wants us to feel His presence as we begin to let go of more and more of the hurts we have experienced by our habits or hang-ups. Matthew 5:4<\/strong> is the scripture that tags this step \u2013 \u2018Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted<\/strong><\/em>.\u2019 It is His comfort we are seeking and only Him that will offer the healing and VICTORY over our hurts, habits and hang-ups.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest issues I went through when I was letting go of my past was the guilt and shame.\u00a0 I had enough \u2018I wishes: I wish I hadn\u2019t made my sons live in the environment I chose; I wish I hadn\u2019t hurt my family; I wish I hadn\u2019t left my marriage; I wish I hadn\u2019t alienated myself from my friends and family; etc, etc. etc.\u00a0 I could write a book on 1001 “I wishes” you don\u2019t want to have.\u00a0 But as I kept saying I wish, God kept telling me to quit wishing on my past and believe in His promise. Isaiah 61:7<\/strong> says: \u2018Instead of their shame, my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs<\/strong><\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 What an amazing promise to believe in God loves us so much, we are going to receive double our portion and have everlasting joy. <\/i><\/b>He will comfort us, restore what we may have lost and give us joy.<\/p>\n

When we continue to live in our habits or hurts, we are trying to drown out something in our lives<\/strong><\/em> or hide what we don\u2019t want brought to light<\/strong><\/em>. We would rather sit back and ignore the issue.\u00a0 The reality in the book about the fire alarm brought this home for me.\u00a0 If the fire alarm went off, would I simply sit there and wait for it to stop, while everything around me disintegrated?\u00a0 That is exactly what we do when we try to cover up our hurts, habits or hang-ups with food, alcohol, anger, work or other addictions. All the things around us disintegrate: relationships, finances, work, anything in our lives that stand in the way of our cover up.\u00a0 I know for myself, when I was living the lifestyle I chose, I was a workaholic, single mom going to school and perfectionist within my home.\u00a0 There was not an item out of place, my kids stayed involved (so I would have more to do), I was doing online classes for my degree and working 70-80 hours per week.\u00a0 That way I had NO time to look at the addictions in my own life. And if someone said, \u201cI am praying for you,\u201d\u00a0 I told them what for? I am fine \u2013 then would go into a long list of why my life was so \u2018fine.\u2019\u00a0 I didn\u2019t need anyone\u2019s help and really did not need God\u2019s help. I was choosing things of the world, not the things of my God.<\/p>\n

I remember someone telling me, \u2018the love of the world will squeeze out the love of the Father<\/strong><\/em>.\u2019 That\u2019s exactly what I was doing. \u00a0God had to get my attention<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 And that He did.\u00a0 I had gone through every one of the denial busters:\u00a0 I was wound tight from over work, damaging relationships with family and friends and was beginning to have medical issues. I had to begin admitting I was not in control and turn it all over to Him.\u00a0 I believed at the time, but had not let Him manage my life.\u00a0 As I did, God started taking me from brokenness to completeness, from hurt to healing and then to Victory over all things in my past.\u00a0 As we begin to admit, He offers hope for that change in our lives.\u00a0 Don\u2019t quit before His healing happens. The hope and help God offers is steps away \u2013 He will stay with us each step of the way until Victory<\/strong><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d Philippians 1:6<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

The hope we search for is found in Christ alone.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0*****************<\/p>\n

Let’s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, we thank You so much that You are our hope. That by Your grace alone, we can find comfort and healing through our struggles.\u00a0 Father, as we continue this week together, help us to continue letting You manage our lives.\u00a0 Help us to find the strength to bring our hurts, habits and hang-ups and lay them at Your feet.\u00a0 To be honest Lord, there are times when we may not feel like giving up our comfort or we may not understand what it is we are to give to You.\u00a0 Bring clarity and peace to our lives Father, that peace that surpasses all understanding as we put our trust in You. We praise You for what You have done and are about to do in our lives.\u00a0 We give all the glory and honor to You.\u00a0 In Jesus Name, Amen<\/p>\n

Assignment: <\/strong><\/p>\n

After reading this blog comment on below and\/or go to our Facebook Group and comment on: \u00a0how you handle pain or disappointment<\/strong>.\u00a0 Also, are there areas of your life you are now beginning to face reality and break your denial?\u00a0 If so, what are those areas?<\/p>\n

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If you are interested in joining us for this Online Bible Study, and becoming a member of our Facebook Discussion Group, please click HERE<\/a> to sign up.<\/p>\n

Once you are registered, we will email you further details.<\/p>\n

If you would like to send a private message to Laurie in regards to this blog, please email her at: Laurie@girlfriendscoffeehour.com<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  In our first week, we prayed for God to give us the courage and willingness to admit we are powerless.\u00a0 As you admitted you are powerless, how did it impact your life last week?\u00a0 When I began admitting that I am NOT God and I am powerless, I went through a multitude of emotions: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":7293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[425,518,1406,555,570,596,608,1405,849,873],"class_list":["post-7285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-victorious-healing","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hope","tag-isaiah-617","tag-jesus-christ","tag-john-baker","tag-laurie-ellis","tag-lifes-healing-choices","tag-matthew-54","tag-psalm-625","tag-recovery","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Psalm62_5.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-1Tv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7380,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions\/7380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}