Recovery Christian Center Daily Meditation - 3/26/12 - Step 12 - The Mission In The Message

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory." Isaiah 61:1-3 NLT

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and practice these principles in all our affairs.

By the time we reach this step God has radically changed us. Gone is the broken, lost, hopeless individual enslaved to bondage. We are, hopefully, transformed into loving, Christ centered, spiritual individuals well on our way to becoming the individual God has called us to be. A large part of that calling for any recovering Christian, regardless of where our gifts and talents lie, is sharing the message that has given us so much hope with someone else that's struggling. In fact if we are truly changed, its not just a calling but a powerful desire in us to see those who are where we were get to where we are.

In addition to being our calling, and hopefully our desire, it is also an expression of our gratitude to God for what He has done for us. Gratitude is an action word and this is the main way God wants us to put it in to action. Sharing the message of finding new life in Christ is for everyone. As we continue on our walk God will place folk in our path that will be uniquely affected and changed by our testimony and experience. Identification can be powerful. Who is better suited to help an addict other than someone who has been in bondage to addiction? Who is better suited to help someone paralyzed by grief than someone was in the same condition? We must understand and accept that God didn't save us to just go on with our lives. He saved us for a purpose, for a mission, and that mission is carrying His message!