Victory by Victory

We live in a world that has less and less patience for things that take time. We want what we want and we want it now.

It used to be that if you ordered something by mail-order, the standard wait to receive your purchase was 6 to 8 weeks. Now we expect to have the goods in our hands in less than a week . . . and often insist on getting it in two days or overnight.

Dinner used to take half the day to prepare. And, although we may still accept that for holidays or special occasions, day in and day out we’re more likely to look for something that can be popped into the microwave, or picked up at the drive-through.

The examples go on and on. We have become an instant society. We just don’t want to wait for anything, and that often includes God. We want instant healing, instant miracles and instant relief from our struggles.

Many of the truly valuable things, however take time. Recovery is one of them. We often get impatient. We want it to be faster, cleaner, easier. But we need to remember one thing:

Recovery is a lifestyle

Yep! True recovery isn’t an event or an episode, it’s a LIFESTYLE.

When we become Christians we are saved from the eternal consequences of our sin. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we find new life, new direction, new hope. This salvation can’t be earned. It is a gift from God. It is free to all those who are willing to accept it. And, it is instantaneous.

But there is more to the Christian walk than just grabbing salvation and coasting into heaven. God wants more for us than to leave us in the state in which we came to him. In relationship with fellow believers and a gracious God, we can begin to challenge our beliefs, change our behaviors, and heal our wounds. This is sanctification. It is a lifelong process of becoming more like Christ.

Addiction is all about instant gratification. Unfortunately, we often drag those addictive thought processes into our recovery and expect that it will be instant, as well. We can get impatient with the idea that we’re not “done” yet. We get frustrated that no matter how much progress we’ve made there always seems to be more work to do. Sometimes we even wonder what’s wrong with us . . . shouldn’t we be “all better” by now?

We forget about the process. We forget that, day-by-day, victory-by-victory, we’re becoming more the person God intended us to be—reflecting more of the image of Christ.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” —2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV)