Step 7 Devotional: Clear Out the Mess
A hard road gets easier when we move the obstacles we’re responsible for.
And when we clear out the mess in our lives, we’ll find that we’re better equipped to help others.
In our last few devotionals, we talked about how our pride, shame, and deceit can keep us from true healing. In order for real change, we have to look deep inside ourselves and ask, “What’s holding me back?” If we honestly want to know that answer, God is guaranteed to show us. You might find that underneath your addiction is a deep parental disconnect that you long to be fixed, a romantic heartbreak that you can’t seem to move past, or a traumatic accident or incident of abuse that you have blamed yourself for for years now.
Regardless of the outside reasons for why we feel the need to “medicate” the pain we have, most of us take that pain and pass it on to others. It’s that common phrase “Hurt people hurt people.” At a certain point, our focus needs to shift away from working on ourselves and onto working to help others. If that wasn’t the case, then none of us would be here. There would be no programs, no coaches, no groups to support our recovery, because no one would have made recovery “bigger than themselves.” We need to make recovery bigger than ourselves, but there’s one more crucial step to take before we’re ready.
Published
10/17/2022
Category
Faith
Step 7 of Recovery
We humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
You might be familiar with the popular parable that Jesus shared in Matthew 7, “Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.” Jesus urges us to remove our own character flaws first before focusing on fixing other people’s problems. While this passage is primarily used to rebuke hypocrisy, its greater message is very clear.
Step 7 of recovery is the last of the inwardly focused and God-centered steps. And in many ways, it’s the perfect bridge from there into the final, outwardly focused steps. You might be looking at Step 7 with a puzzled look on your face. On the surface, Step 7 seems like another very inwardly focused step. While that’s true, it still very much clears the road for the rest of the steps. Jesus’ parable of the speck and the log and Step 7 are saying the same thing. In order to move on and help others, we have to help ourselves first. But where is God in all this? Isaiah 57 connects this all beautifully.
There is so much to unpack here. First, God wants us to clear the road, clear out the house, clean out our hearts, because it makes room for you and I to “return from captivity.” Captivity in our sense is not just sin in general, but our addiction. We might think that our addiction is the thing that holds us away from God. While sometimes it is, it’s more than that. Our character defects hold us back from God. Don’t mistake what we’re saying here, though. You don’t need to “clean your act up” first and then come to God. God is already calling you to him. You “clean up your act” while on your way closer to him.
The second half of this passage is just as impactful, but it can be easily missed. Once we start drawing closer to God and our own mess is being cleared away, we start to turn our focus on others. God says in Isaiah 57 that clearing the road leads to him “restoring, reviving’, healing, and comforting.” How does he do that? Through us! And how do we know? God tells the prophet Isaiah that he “will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips.” The praise on our lips is how he graciously pulled us out of our addiction and how he can do the same for everyone else. Let’s clear out our mess so that we can help others out of theirs.
God says, “Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity.”
The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts. I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them. I will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips. May they have abundant peace, both near and far,” says the Lord, who heals them.
Isaiah 57:14-15,18-19
Conclusion
Key takeaways
- If people didn’t at some point move their focus from ourselves to others, recovery support wouldn’t be available for us.
- In order to help others heal, we have to make sure that we’re healthy ourselves.
- God wants us to clear the obstacles (character defects) that stop us from getting to him and helping others.
- Through us, God can restore, revive, heal, and comfort people just like us.
Challenge
Apply to your life
Take an hour this week to read Isaiah 57. Meditate and pray on what you read. Read, pray, and meditate while keeping in mind the things that you need to work on to be in a better spot to help others. Then, reach out and help! It’s all a fluid process. The order of the process is concrete, but you don’t have to wait until you have “arrived” to make a difference.
Conclusion
Key takeaways
- If people didn’t at some point move their focus from ourselves to others, recovery support wouldn’t be available for us.
- In order to help others heal, we have to make sure that we’re healthy ourselves.
- God wants us to clear the obstacles (character defects) that stop us from getting to him and helping others.
- Through us, God can restore, revive, heal, and comfort people just like us.
Challenge
Apply to your life
Take an hour this week to read Isaiah 57. Meditate and pray on what you read. Read, pray, and meditate while keeping in mind the things that you need to work on to be in a better spot to help others. Then, reach out and help! It’s all a fluid process. The order of the process is concrete, but you don’t have to wait until you have “arrived” to make a difference.
Ty Walker
Ty Walker is a contract copywriter and graphic designer with a huge heart for recovery. He has spent the last five years serving churches and recovery communities with his creative skills. Ty spends his free time writing poetry and fictional short stories as well as hiking, biking, and kayaking with his wife, Angie, and his two daughters, Winter and Ember.
Credit where credit is due
This article was inspired by The Life Recovery Bible presented by Tyndale Publishing. If you would like to check out additional recovery articles, videos, and podcast episodes, check us out at artisticrecovery.org.
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