The First Prerequisite for Recovery

The First Prerequisite for Recovery

"I have found that there is nothing we receive from the Kingdom of God without humility being present first." - Pastor Jason Elmore
My pastor understands the importance of humility and so do I. In my first post on this blog, I talked about the foundation for hope and change through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The first step in the 12 Step programs also concerns humility for change cannot happen as long as the person with the problem is in denial. It matters not if you are addicted to some drug that is ruining your life or you have a real mental health problem that throws your thinking and actions off, until the issue is acknowledged with the seriousness that it deserves, you are not going anywhere. Denial is an opposite of humility.

According to the Bible, Jesus stated that you have to humble yourself and become like a little child, with simple faith, in order to be able to enter His Kingdom. He also stated plainly that we need to be born again. Simply being born into a family where your forefathers claimed to be Christians or belonging to a particular organization that claims to promote Jesus' Kingdom does not make someone a Christian going to heaven. We have to choose to set aside our pride and accept in faith what Jesus did on the cross to save us. When we do this we become babes in Christ. If you have not done this, then you may be part of a “Christian” heritage and/or may be a member of a “Christian” denomination but you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus where it all starts. Most people in this world are in denial of the eternal realities Jesus taught about. They exist in a state of pride where they are either trying to save themselves somehow, or they do not think they are sinners who do evil, or they simply could not care about such matters at all.

The Bible states that we should want to mature, after choosing to humble ourselves and receiving salvation, by learning what pleases God and choosing to practice those things. The term “Orthopraxy” means, literally, “proper practice.” I use this word frequently as I do the term “discipleship” which encompasses the whole maturity processes which is learning what practically “Orthopraxy” looks like and then cultivating the discipline to do what Jesus teaches each day. This is a process that every true believer is supposed to be working on. I am writing this to Christians so the rest of what I say will not make sense or work for you if you have not been born again, first.

Dealing with sin in our lives is where the rubber meets the road for discipleship. We Christians are called to follow Jesus each day. This is true rather or not you have a mental disorder. Everyone has multiple sin issues and they are not easy to deal with. For those with mental disorders, some of the sin issues we have negatively affect the disorder. For others, they have other kinds of practical problems that sin makes worse, so we all have something we need to responsibly deal with. Sin is literally, from the Greek word, missing the mark. It comes from archery when the archer fails to hit the bullseye. To me it is the imperfection that is a part of almost everything we do. There can be shame involved for everyone. Shame has to be dealt with in a mature way. That topic deserves its own post, and I am sure I will eventually get around to that. But for now I will just mention it as something important to understand and deal with.

But back to humility, we want to receive God's help which requires humility on our part first. 1 Peter 5:5, “...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” One way God exalts us is by helping us with the problems in our lives that are tormenting us. Grace is what we receive and it does its work to make us think and act more like Jesus. This happens only under the condition that we choose to “clothe ourselves with humility.” This is a choice we have to make each day. This is where discipleship and Orthopraxy start. For recovery, the foundation is Jesus Christ, as I talked about in the last post, and the next step is choosing humility as a continuing life-style. Humility is not a one time event like salvation.

The next thing worth mentioning is that the humility has to be authentic. There is a false humility that men put on for show. But God sees right through that. In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus condemned the false humility of the Pharisees. They would not put their tithes into the offering containers unless there was a large crowd to see them do it, nor would they pray unless there was a large crowd and then they would shout those prayers out in order to “look spiritual” to the people. In modern times there are some religious celebrities who will not do simple acts of charity unless there is a large crowd with their cameras for “photo ops.” This is a modern day example of false humility at work. Real humility is what happens when there is no around to see it. We do the right thing knowing that God sees it. We are not doing these things to try to impress the crowds of people. Our actions are seamless so what we do does not change when an audience arrives. What we do at church, is what we do with our families, which is what we do at work, which is what we do when we are alone. To do otherwise is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a fruit of pride at work in our lives. Let me explain how this works.

Embarrassment is rooted in pride. It is what we feel when others discover that we are not as good as what we would like others to believe. Rick Joyner writes that when we make decisions that are motivated by embarrassment we are acting in pride, and I have found this to be true in my own life. I have found pride to be like an onion: it has layers and its smells bad. Pull off one layer, and there is another underneath, and they all have a stench to them. Humility is choosing to repent and letting God remove the layers one at a time. This is the hard work of “clothing ourselves with humility.” It is discipleship in practice and it is Orthopraxy at its most basic foundation. Humility, in contrast, has a wonderful smell to it which is why there exists something called false humility and why that is linked to hypocrisy. Pride feels good to us for it gives a kind of immediate gratification, but it produces bad fruit over time. Humility does not feel good initially, but it produces fruit that makes us feel better over time. Pride comes naturally, where humility is an acquired taste.

Now pride, the opposite of humility, is like a two headed coin. I realized this many years ago as I was still in the middle of my recovery. The proud person goes through life flipping coins, sure that heads is going to come up because they are so clever, skilled, or gifted or whatever. Success is surely awaiting around the corner. When the coin indeed turns up heads, then the result is what people would normally associate with pride: arrogance, snobbishness, the I am better than you attitude and the like. But, in Romans 12:2 it says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you”. The arrogant side of the coin with proud and successful people is very easy to see and understand for most people.

But what happens when the coin toss comes up tails? Failure. At this point a proud person will do one of two things: they will either look for a third party to cast blame upon, or they will tend to beat themselves up over their personal disappointment. In the latter case, there is an inner voice, self-talk it is commonly called, and it starts beating up the person who failed. “How could you have let this happen? Why did you not foresee this? You are better than this! Make sure it does not happen again!” That is the inner voice of pride that is suffering disappointment. Being sober in our judgment means that we should be able to accept failure gracefully. God does. It is His standard for what we should realistically think of ourselves that we need to keep in mind, for He is the final judge in these matters. He is not surprised when we prove ourselves fallible. He knows we are all prone to falling into ditches along the Path of Life. This is the very reason why Jesus had to die for us in the first place.

If you are having problems forgiving yourself for something that you know God's has forgiven you for, then let me suggest that you consider that there might be hidden pride at work. But that can be repented of by choosing not to think so highly of yourself anymore. God's Son came to redeem us from the consequences of sin. But pride gets in the way and refuses that redemption. We are not capable of fixing ourselves. God knows this and he does not condemn us every time tails comes up. Nor does He feed our arrogance when heads come up. We have to make a decision to trust God and be gracious enough to receive forgiveness, no matter what we have actually done. Humility, again, is not thinking more highly of our abilities then God does. So it takes humility in order to receive God's grace and let go of our past failures. This can be harder for people with a diagnosed disorder because we are more prone to confusion.

In summary, humility is a continuing second step for recovery. This humility has to be genuine and it has to be renewed over time. Pride can be sneaky and we have to actively be on guard against it in our hearts. This pride can become even more of a problem as a person matures and learns more about God and His scriptures. Learning about these things is not the same as doing them. The point of Orthopraxy is to learn what we are supposed to do and then keep practicing them. Humility is necessary to get God's help in order to keep moving forward in recovery. We receive God's grace by choosing to humble ourselves. We really need God's help through life because things are not easy. Let me encourage you to keep on choosing to clothe yourselves each day with this humility. Without it, you are simply not helping yourself.

The Foundation of Recovery

This is the first post for my new blog here. The purpose of this blog is a place where I can share things that I learned in my recovery from depression and anxiety in the hope that others can find inspiration and insight that would help in their own recovery. I attend a weekly Fresh Hope peer support meeting where I attempt to encourage others that full recovery can happen. It does not happen easily. That is why much wisdom is required in order to see the path forward in life. A walk with God where thriving, in spite of the disorder, is possible for all. Having spiritual eyes to see is key. Without that I just see people remaining stuck inside their own pits created by the mental health disorder that they are afflicted with. This is the first half of the solution. The second is acquiring the discipline in order to keep doing the things necessary for actual sustained recovery. This is the basic overview of how my own recovery happened.

So what is the starting point for someone who is struggling with a mental health disorder to acquire both the vision and the discipline necessary for recovery? The starting point for me was Jesus Christ. I also see Him as the ending point. “The only thing that I have seen bring stability into people lives is a personal relationship with Jesus.” - Pastor Jason Elmore My pastor spends a lot of time counseling people. He has talked with hundreds, maybe even thousands, over the years and, because he has been in the ministry for many decades, he has heard every kind of problem that people can have. So this statement says a lot in that he has seen many people try other things, but has never seen any of them actually work. Some of these people definitely had a diagnosed mental health disorder and were wanting help with that. This real, intimate relationship with Jesus is also the primary thing I accredit my own recovery with.

What does the Bible have to see about this? Ephesians 2: 20-22, “...with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Jesus is the cornerstone that the rest of our life is built upon. At least, this comes true when we choose to cooperate with the process. John 14:6, “Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life...'” I think most Christians interpret this as, basically, fire insurance against going to hell after death. Believe this, convert to Christianity and then your eternal life is secure. This is a truth, and I would never discount the great worth of this, but Jesus is not just talking about heaven here, but also the way, the path in this life. I see many Christians who are babes, just mere converts to Christianity, but they have not dedicated their lives on earth in practical ways to follow Jesus as Their Way. This way is a personal relationship with Jesus that has benefits both here on earth and in eternity later. He is not just a source of truth when you are confused, but He is the very definition of the word “truth.” He is more than some human guru that teaches you principals to find life. He is The Life. Jesus does more than just point to some other path that is better than the one we are on now. He is The Path. This personal relationship is everything. Jesus simply is The Answer for the struggles with any mental health challenge or, for that matter, any other serious life problem we might have.

The foundation for our hope to both recover and thrive is found in knowing Jesus ourselves. We cannot allow ourselves to be content with making some pastor or priest be our intermediary with God, because only Jesus can do this for us. For those who maintain a second or third hand relationship with Jesus, you are going to keep struggling and you will remain confused. Jesus made it plain that he wants to know us and his Apostles made it clear that we have access to God directly. The old priestly system of sacrifices being handled by a third party has been done away with and we have a new and better covenant. I do not believe that recovery for a Christian will be any better than the quality of this relationship. If you have been distant, do not despair. This is a wake up call and you can change that. God is not condemning us for our many past failures. Instead, He extends His helping hand to help us out of the ditch we find ourselves in. Take His hand, and let Him lift you up. Recovery has to start with Jesus. It also ends with Him. This is not a one time decision to be made, but it needs to become a disciplined lifestyle choice for each new day in our life. Only then can we move on to face the individual steps required to move towards full recovery. This is the foundation for recovery that worked in my own life.