Step 8 Devotional: Harvesting Good Seeds

Faith icon

Our trauma and actions can cause the consequences we live with today.

Doing the hard work of taking responsibility for those actions and making amends will harvest good seeds.

Most of us, if not all of us, have trauma in some capacity that subconsciously directs how we handle life’s present situations. We have at least one emotionally charged trigger that can cause us to overreact to a situation or season in our life. Maybe we lost a close friend to suicide when we were young, grew up with a missing parent, or lived in an overly rigid, religious family system that expected more than we were capale of performing. No matter our past, it informs a lot of how we feel and respond to situations in the present.

Beyond our trauma, though sometimes because of it, we have a deep complicated history of mistakes, wrongs, and hurt that we’ve caused for ourselves and others. When we’re confronted or reminded of these moments and actions, we tend to respond one of two ways. Some of us continually condemn ourselves for being “especially” wicked or irresponsible. This only perpetuates the shame cycle that often underlies our addiction. Sometimes we see the wickedness or irresponsibleness inside us but default to blaming our trauma. This only keeps us from dealing with the part that we actually have the power to fix, ourselves.

Published

10/17/2022

Category

Faith

Step 8 of Recovery

We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 8 of recovery prompts us to take responsibility for the wrongs that we have caused, whether they were done unintentionally due to our addiction, or intentionally due to our own self-centeredness. Taking responsibility can mean a couple of things. Commonly, this means going directly to the people we have hurt, apologizing, and then doing all that’s in our power to make the wrong right. Other times, taking responsibility might just mean suffering the natural consequences for our actions. Most of the time, both making amends and accepting the consequences are included in taking responsibility.

This era of our life can feel like the hardest due to this combination of working to make things right and suffering the consequences of past wrongs. We spend months or years feeling like we’re not making any headway. It feels like our good deeds are constantly being punished. While that feels true, it certainly isn’t true. If we’re diligent in our goal of life-change, we’ll eventually see good, sweet fruit grow where bad, sour fruit once grew. Over time, we’ll find the relationships that once harbor manipulation, distrust, advantageous actions, now carrying a new closeness, understanding, and grace.

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Galatians 6:8-9

This is a powerful passage, as simple as it is. Sowing good seeds (deeds), like we talked about in Step 5, brings about good fruit (consequences). Sowing bad seeds brings about bad fruit. I’m reminded of a moment at a church camp I went to in high school. Yes, I was one of those kids. The speaker, rhetorically responding for us to his message of salvation through faith alone, asked, “But Brandon, if we’re saved only by faith, why should we do good things?” His immediate response, as simple as it was, has stuck with me for over 15 years. He promptly and passionately responded, “Because good things are good, dummy!” Why do we pick up our half-eaten plate of spaghetti and wash it off into the trash? Because it’s good, dummy.

This passage in Galatians has even more to encourage us to make a drastic and hard change in our lives. It comes in right at the end. “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Like I stated earlier, taking responsibility for the mistakes, wrongs, and hurt that we caused others often feels “unfruitful” and punishing. But it’s a necessary and crucial part of the recovery process. God says that if we don’t “get tired” or “give up,” we’ll taste the fruit of our good deeds “at just the right time.” The God that invented time, knows exactly when to pick the fruit. We tend to want reprieve immediately. That’s why we have our addictions. But God has a better plan for you.

Conclusion

Key takeaways

  • We all have trauma in our past that informs how we respond to things in the present.
  • Either because of or outside of our trauma, we have actions and consequences that we have to accept.
  • Taking responsibility often means both making amends and suffering consequences.
  • This era in our life feels the hardest because it feels like we’re being punished for doing good.
  • If we’re diligent, we can grow good consequences where bad ones once grew.
  • God has perfect timing and will reward us when the time is just right.

Challenge

Apply to your life

Take a half hour this week to read Galatians 6. It’s a pretty short chapter so feel free to read all of Galatians. Meditate and pray on what you read. Read, pray, and meditate on areas of your life where you need to take responsibility for your actions, both inside and outside of addiction. Make a list of all the people that you’ve wronged and still need to reconcile with and make amends.

Conclusion

Key takeaways

  • We all have trauma in our past that informs how we respond to things in the present.
  • Either because of or outside of our trauma, we have actions and consequences that we have to accept.
  • Taking responsibility often means both making amends and suffering consequences.
  • This era in our life feels the hardest because it feels like we’re being punished for doing good.
  • If we’re diligent, we can grow good consequences where bad ones once grew.
  • God has perfect timing and will reward us when the time is just right.

Challenge

Apply to your life

Take a half hour this week to read Galatians 6. It’s a pretty short chapter so feel free to read all of Galatians. Meditate and pray on what you read. Read, pray, and meditate on areas of your life where you need to take responsibility for your actions, both inside and outside of addiction. Make a list of all the people that you’ve wronged and still need to reconcile with and make amends.

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.

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.

Subscribe

Recovery resources anytime, anywhere.

Subscribe

Recovery resources anytime, anywhere.

Check out some related episodes

Want to read more?

Head back to our library.

If we’re diligent in our goal of life-change, we’ll eventually see good, sweet fruit grow where bad, sour fruit once grew. Over time, we’ll find the relationships that once harbor manipulation, distrust, advantageous actions, now carrying a new closeness, understanding, and grace.

Interested in Recovery Coaching?

Sessions are available via Zoom and are always free of charge.

LET’S TALK