Finding A Vision In Recovery

Rewritten from 2020: This still applies and is probably one of the most important things to do as you recover. We all need a vision – a reason – to get better. I pray you seek that out with God. This is what He showed me after much prayer. In January 2020 God shared this with me and I am amazed as I look back and see the difference it made.

January 2020:

I’ve prayed for a long time for God to show me a vision for my recovery. To provide me with a verse that I could look to and remind me why am really doing this extremely hard work. Why am I even trying to get better?

Because when you start to get hopeless, you need something to look back at and go, “Yes, that is the reason!” To remind us why we are pursuing healing.

I wondered when God was going to show me and then I realized He can’t show me if I’m not reading His Word. So I began reading in the book of John which tells the account of Jesus life and ministry. I wasn’t even looking for a verse, I was simply taking in the message. Then as I was reading today in my devotional, Jesus Calling, I came across a verse that I looked up in my Bible and began to read it in context.

Here is what I read:

“Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory – that is the reason. Everything we do here has eternal significance. We are preparing to be with Jesus. To spend eternity in heaven with Him. I truly believe our hard work in recovery to get better leads us to a closer relationship with Jesus and so it has an eternal significance.

I have the picture in my mind of walking hand in hand with Jesus here on earth and then through the streets of gold in heaven one day. Our troubles may seem to go on forever here on earth, but when we look at forever in heaven the time frame doesn’t compare.

So, today as you continue in recovery remember to hold onto to Jesus as you work to get better. He is renewing us day by day and preparing us for the moment we meet Him face to face. What a glorious day that will be!

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” 2 Corinthians 4:17

© 2021 rewritten: Susan M. Clabaugh. All Rights Reserved.