Roy Martin Ministries

Who Are You Serving?

As we close out this last day of the month, let us think about what God had in mind when He saw us begin this journey into addiction. You need to see nothing is wasted by God, even those evil moments. Haven’t you seen already how your testimony is effective when sharing with others? It is my belief God has called us into a special ministry to reach those who suffer just as we have. If you are in recovery ministry there is someone who just entered while we have concluded a month and we need to befriend this person and let them know they, too, can make it.

If you are outside and resuming life, there is someone you can tell and offer encouragement that it doesn’t have to be like this anymore. Live your life as an example. God will put people in your path who will be watching you. How you live, speak and proceed in those things you do will speak volumes for those who have no hope or losing what little they have. Remember when we were like this just so many days, weeks, months and years ago? What was the turning point for you? We need to reflect upon this many times. We just may be the turning point for others.

Yes, we are serving God; however, we cannot discount the serving of our fellowmen and women. They need to know how God made changes in your life. Tell them.

Praising God is also uplifting others.

God is Preparing Us

It may seem it is taking such a long time to get from experience to experience, but rest assured God has His eye on us and knows fully well what He is doing. One of the cruelest things God could ever do is give a blessing we are not able to handle. He would never show us something we could never attain. So, before He can make these offerings available to us, He has to prepare us to be able to receive them. And this can and probably will take varying times for us.

We need to develop patience. There is nothing happening outside which we will miss. There is absolutely nothing and no one who can take from you what God intends for you to have. This is an absolute truth. When we read in the Bible the story of Joseph, or Daniel and others, it seems everything happened within a short period of time, but in fact, many years passed when what was told was actually realized. During this time those great men, who are our examples, had to learn how to be patient and wait on God. When you are living outside the confines of a 24 hour period and there isn’t any constraint on doing something because of losing time, then God can act, on our behalf, when it is proper time. He is not worried you will pass away and not be able to receive what He has for you. It is a guarantee you will receive it.

Our sights should be set not on the temporal things of this earth. These things are nothing. Let’s begin to spend more time on getting ourselves prepared so we can receive the ultimate gift of God’s blessing which can be given to us in our present state, eternal life.

God has so much to show you but remember He knows how best to bring it all about.

Subjecting One’s Self

Do you wish to know what God has planned for you and how to receive wisdom and power and be humble at the same time? This is what we are being called to achieve. It may seem an enormous task of impossibility but we are not asked to do it alone. One of the most important aspects of recovery is learning how to keep the body in its place. There are many desires and urges, especially during addiction, we have had to deal with and now that life is finished for us, there will rise to the surface others which have been suppressed while our addiction ran its course. We need to put our body down.

How do we accomplish “putting our body down”? Surrendering to God. When you have decided to let God handle your affairs, mysteriously those things which seemed important before no longer hold such a hold on us. It really is the strangest thing. When the “taste”, as it were, is being diminished for a particular interest then we are capable to make decisions based upon judgment and common sense. No longer are we held captive to that urge because God has placed us in a position of power to make a good choice. Make the choice which is best.

When you have made the choice, God then directs you in which way to go and good things will begin to replace those things you would have done previously. Those temptations will arise again and again, but each time they grow weaker and weaker until they’re gone once and for all. We must keep in mind there is an enemy who, too, is concerned about us and doesn’t want to lose us. He will not continue to put in your path those things which aren’t working anymore. He will try other deceitful lifestyle habits, but rest assured you have a God who is more than aware of what He is doing and is providing you with all you need to combat the problems.

Saying “no” to what feels good is saying “yes” to what is better for us.

Favor With God

In this terrible world of pain, shame, suffering and death, if we don’t have God we have nothing. I cannot imagine living here without knowing there is a God who is providing for me. The very fact I am breathing demonstrates He is still on the throne. Every heartbeat I have is dictated by Him. There is nothing about me which isn’t from Him and I chose to acknowledge this today.

Today when I went for a walk, I started my normal method of prayer by asking. God stopped me cold in my tracks and said, “Just praise Me”. In the hour of walking I learned by praising Him takes away all my worries. When you are neglectful of worship, you worry. When you are praising Him, you aren’t worrying. When you are worried about something, it is because you are the focus. When you are walking in power and blessings, God is the focus.

When will we get it through out thick skulls that life isn’t about what we see, what we want and how to go about getting it. There is so much more to it than this. Life is about having a relationship with God and letting Him do what He does best for us. Love us. I need to have this in my life so much more than I can even imagine. I also thought while on my walk that if I should have that last breath today. If I should have that last heartbeat today, would it be okay? It is. I know I am much better today on this side of addiction than where I was prior. I needed to go through what I went through in order to be the man I am today.

It might sound strange, but I wish to thank Him for the addiction because through it I have come to realize who He is and will always want to remain in His favor.

Can you thank Him for your addiction? He may not have given it but He has made it work on your behalf!

Sensible About Who We Are

This is what I had to learn. It’s a continuation of what I shared with you yesterday about those things of what we need and have. Along the same line, God needs for us to understand who we are in relation to Him. Before He can give you strength and power He needs you to understand where you are lacking. So many of us and I am most definitely in this group, thought we were all that and no one could tell us we weren’t. The reason why we were able to accumulate wealth and shiny things in life was because of who we were. There was an “entitlement” we thought the world owed us because for the mere fact we are here. We expected the best and believed should have been given the best. Until that fateful day…

A baby comes into the world knowing only one thing, “I need…” Whatever they don’t have is counter-balanced with a desire and urge to attain. A baby needs food but unable to chew, but instinctively God has blessed the child with the ability to suck in order to obtain nourishment. How many of us when knocked down had too much pride to “suck it up” in order to receive our basics? It took all I was worth to be able to stand in a line where they were handing out food. Too much pride! God had to remove it. I learned this most important rule of life, when someone offers you something, receive it. They didn’t have to offer and perhaps it was God who told them to do it. Don’t deny them their blessing. Remove your pride, no, get rid of it altogether so you can, too, enjoy life.

Before God is able to offer you blessings He intends to give you, He needs to make you aware of who you are and what you are incapable of doing for yourself. He is a loving Father who loves to shower blessings and gifts upon His children—us. We need to learn how to “suck it up”, get rid of the pride and open our arms wide to receive His love.

God can only give when we are willing and able to receive.

Whatever We Have…

…is what God has given us and we need to learn how to be content with it. Many of us came from money and had nice things before entering into this life of addiction. Perhaps you, as in my case, have come to realized although the devil meant it for harm, God turned it around and made it for our good. Had I continued in the life I did, I was doomed. It was all about “me” and what I could accumulate and not about “God” and how I could be a blessing to others. God allowed those things to be removed from me so they would no longer be a distraction. Now, I can see God clearly for the first time in my life.

God may never restore those things we had and may give us a fraction of what He gave before and this should be okay with you. When you think about it we really don’t need those things anyway. God has promised to provide your basic needs. This is a promise and should He give you more, then realize how blessed you are. If you have been given just a little more don’t put the blessing in place of God. I thought houses and cars and money and boats and jewelry and electronics was all there was to life until God removed those things from me. Today, I am happier than ever before and I am able and desiring to bless those who have less, some have nothing. No matter how bad it got for me while being “out there”, I never had “nothing”. I had the clothes on my back, good health despite what I was doing to myself, and family and friends who love me. Actually, is there anything else more desirable?

When you have decided to make the choice to come over onto God’s side, He will see to it that your happier days are ahead of you, so there is no need to look backwards in memory.

Whatever you haven’t got, God hasn’t meant it for you.

He’s Close, Really Close

There will be plenty of times when you are going to feel as if you are alone. Whether you are in a program or ministry, it seems although the people surrounding you and came from where you did, are really not with you. Even if you have finished your time there and are back trying to resume life, you will go through a period of what may seem as being isolated from family and friends. No one understands exactly where you are, hesitant because they fear you may make a mistake and they don’t want to be the cause or witness. So, you will have this feeling of being all alone in this venture of moving forward.

This is the time to recognize God. In order for Him to be as close to you as necessary He will cause others to briefly step away. He wants you to see Him as He really is, always there and loving and caring for you. He wishes you to have a relationship with Him. Talk with Him instead of “to” Him. Learn to share with Him your thoughts and feelings. Speak aloud to Him and be grateful you can have this “alone” time to do so. So many times in Recovery, we want the wholesome attention to replace the attention we got in addiction. God doesn’t want “replacements” in your life. He wants to offer you a life of purity. He doesn’t desire you to trade addictions.

When the attempts come to distract you and rest assured they will, find a quiet place to spend time with Him. Remove yourself from the “noise” of life and you will learn being alone will be just the right strategy for seeing how close God really is to you. Being alone is not so bad, after all.

With God being everywhere we can never be alone, so don’t push Him away.

The Night God Cried

Rain has an interesting meaning for me. During one of my lowest times in my life, I spent several days away from a new job, new wife, new home and new country and found myself binging for three days. It seemed I had everything good going for me and yet I would find myself back in my addiction. It didn’t matter where I went, I would ruin my life. That one early morning instead of getting more money out of my account I left the place I survived. The wind blew just enough for me to get a whiff of myself and I reeked of three days of sweat, no hygiene was attempted and still wearing the same clothing I wore when I left my office several days before.

As I walked headed home another woman called out to me and I chided her about bothering me and couldn’t she see how messed up I was, even as bad as I smelled. Then it started to rain. The rain was covering my crying as I walked. The police stopped beside me. I knew I was wanted, reported missing, and I told them who I was and what I did. The officer in the passenger seat shook his head and told me to continue going, in the rain. They wanted nothing to do with me.

Then it was revealed that my tears were being mixed with God’s tears! That was the reason for the rain. He was saddened by what occurred. He wasn’t angry I messed up the good life He had given me, because He knows all things. You cannot disappoint someone who has this ability but He allowed His tears to fall upon me to let me understand how He felt toward me. He was hurt because His son was in pain. I can only imagine the pain I put in His heart. That’s how much He loves each and every one of us.

When He can’t shower us with love which He chooses to do, He showers us in the tears of His of love.

Just Stop!

While being “out there” I am certain there were many times when you had a moment of peace you wished you could just stop. Stop the foolishness, the pain and the hurting. The hurting of others as well as yourself, you wished it would just stop. Being tired of staying up all night and day, not eating or drinking properly and wondered why your body didn’t give up and just stop. Like the “energizer bunny” you kept going and going and going… And now that you are in a place of refuge it may seem your mind won’t stop thinking about what you did. If you are not daydreaming about it you are dreaming about it during your sleep. It seems nothing will stop it, the using.

Remember this: everything must end. For some it will take longer than others but be assured, everything does have an ending. I promise, if you just will hold on, you, too will come to see I am right. Those thoughts will stop. Those dreams will stop. You will begin anew and have different thoughts and dreams. Your life will never have to return to what you once knew and you will be happy. Happy sounds so much like a child’s word, but this is how simple it will be. You will literally be “happy” about how things are turning out for you instead of how they were going before. And incidentally, people will be happy for you. Even God Himself will be happy with you.

Stopping comes with assistance from God. You have long filled your mind with things which have become a part of you, but it doesn’t have to remain. It’s probably akin to those who are impaled with something, like falling on a fence. I often wondered why those who assisted didn’t just pull the impaling instrument out of the person instead of calling for assistance. It is because once impaled, sometimes the instrument is in fact protecting although hurting and to just rip it out will cause more damage. God will slowly bring your recovery about so you are not hurt even more in the process. But rest assured, everything does stop.

God knows what He is doing to bring about a total and complete Recovery in your life.

Convince by Example

So many times while in recovery many will appear to speak “down” to you. It’s as if you are a little baby and have no understanding. For some, you may be infantile in your Christian walk but God knows how to raise His children. However, do not allow what you hear to affect you as much as what you see; and when you have seen with your own eyes how others are, set it in your mind you will do your best to “live” an example for others to see rather than using your mouth. This will speak volumes of who you are and of Whom you follow.

My own personal problem is my mouth. I love to talk. When I am conversing with someone about a particular subject and I know it so well and can see where they are in error, I just have this overwhelming need to interrupt them and put them back on track. What I am learning as I get older, this doesn’t work. I’m learning how to be patient with myself more than with them. I’m learning they are helping me to see me and the problems I have with myself. This is why God brought this person into my presence. It’s not me for them, but them for me. I ask God, “Please show me what it is about this person you are trying to show me about me which needs attention.” And He does it.

The same God who is speaking to you is also dealing with the other person. There will be proper time for some correction but recognize where the correction is coming from. It is God through you and not God because of you. He doesn’t need you! What He needs is for you to see where you need some help, so take it and use it for your own benefit.

Nowhere in Scripture do we find Jesus arguing with anyone. He let His life provide the answer others were seeking.