Look Again
 

Look Again
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“ ‘Go and look toward the sea,’ he told his servant. And he went up and looked. ‘There is nothing there,’ he said. Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’ The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea...’ ”
(1 Kings 18:43–44, NIV)
TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria

The Bible says that after the prophet Elijah prayed and asked God to end the drought, he said to the people, “I can hear the sound of an abundance of rain.”

He was saying in effect, “There is a yes from God in our future!”

Elijah told his assistant to go look on the other side of the mountain to see if there was any sign of rain. When the assistant came back, he said, “No, Elijah. There’s not a cloud in the sky. It’s perfectly clear.” Elijah didn’t get discouraged and think, “What are we going to do now? I might as well quit this prophet business.” No, he simply said, “Go back and look again.”

This happened six different times, but Elijah kept saying, “Go look again.” On the seventh time, the servant came back and said, “Elijah, I saw a small cloud in the sky. It isn’t much, just the size of a man’s hand.” Elijah’s answer was basically, “You’d better get your umbrella. Rain is coming!”

Friend, like Elijah, maybe you are believing for something, and you aren’t seeing anything happen. Don’t give up, go look again! If God has promised it, He will do it. It won’t be long until you see His showers of blessing pouring down on every area of your life!
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father, thank You for Your faithfulness. I believe that You are working behind the scenes even when I can’t see it. I choose to keep believing. I choose to look again until I see every promise fulfilled in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Love the premise of this. Remember we have a disease of perception. Go back and look again, not just at the people, but listen to the message. Just because some person is in the rooms of recovery, doesn`t mean they have sobriety, they may be sober in today, but they may not have learned yet to walk their talk. Recovery is a process like all things. It is a one day at a time program. I just might walk it a little better in today than I did yesterday.

I know before I came to recovery, I could stop but I couldn`t stay stopped. When I got here, I didn`t think I was an alcoholic, but I found that I wanted to what they had. I knew I was an addict, but my denial kept me sick for a long time.

I thought if I just faked it and said I was one, they would let me keep coming back. As they say, bring the body and the mind will follow. I knew that I belonged, I felt at home, but there was a part of me that was holding out. It was that escape route, fear that it wouldn`t work for me, even though I saw people who had been clean for weeks, months and years, I thought I was different, especially since I had been raised in the church, so that made me an extra big whopping SIN. What I found was that I was a soul in need, looking outside of myself for gratification, and anything will do that would allow me to shut down, run away, or cope with life and my friend became my enemy.

I was searching for that feeling, the one when the first mouthful hits bottom, I would find it, but I couldn`t stop there, I had to have more.

Look more into recovery instead of your mind set that you don`t have a problem and you are not like them. Even people who don`t drink and drug, need the program in whatever fellowship they choose. It is a family disease. Look around you and how your actions are affecting others. Sometimes the family can be sicker than the alcoholic and addict. There focus is on the next fix, while family is looking at the alcoholic and addict, and not living their own lives.

I am just F.I.NE., not so good, when it means frustrated, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.