Conviction and Compromise
4 minute read
Surrender is crucial to your recovery because there are certain portions of your recovery that can only be accessed after surrender, and then released further after full submission. At Red Sea recovery we believe that thoughts precede actions. What we are seeking in recovery is to surrender our thoughts and have a mind that filters those thoughts through the Holy Spirit BEFORE our mind tells the body what to do. Then, we can start seeing change working in our recovery.
But what battles conviction? It's compromise. And what does compromise look like in recovery? I've talked about this before, but we need to understand this. Compromise in recovery can be a lot of things, but most of the time, what it boils down to is you looking at success in recovery as you becoming a better version of you. And that is not going to cut it.
If all you're looking to do is to become a better version of you, then you're still measuring you against you. What we need to do is start measuring ourselves against Jesus Christ. And then you're going to see that you don't want to be just a version of what the world says is better. You want to be free! We want to be free of these chains, not just a better person while in them.
Okay, so we're surrendering down. We're saying the right things now. But sometimes the end result is still a submitted body that falls short of the correct thought that the mind supplies, even after it is filtered through the Holy Spirit.
What is this? Why is this happening? That is the struggle sometimes that we deal with in recovery and addictions. And it is especially painful when it is that last 5% you are trying to overcome. The fact is that once we do get this mind right and surrender it down, then our spirit is willing, but our flesh is still weak. Jesus addresses this in the Bible in Matthew 26:41 (NKJV) when he says:
“Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41 (NKJV)
That is the point when the full remedy of sanctifying grace comes in. That's when this process we call walking in the full measure of our salvation kicks in. That's when you need to rest in his grace, because it's frustrating. It can be discouraging. You can start to lose your faith in Jesus Christ. You can start to believe you're not even saved at all during this time. You have to believe in the sanctifying grace that exists for you AS YOU ARE STRIVING to become more like Christ. It is key that you are striving here for the goal of the high calling of Jesus Christ in your life, and not sitting in complacency and compromise.
The Bible doesn’t say, “Well, that’s just too bad. That’s the way things will always be.” In fact, even in just this one scripture, Jesus gives you two action points here: Watch and Pray. Sometimes we have to place a new level of watchful vigilance. That could take the form of increased accountability with our Lifeguard sponsor, or new people, places, and things that must be removed from our life. Sometimes our normal prayer life is not enough. We must increase the intensity and expectation in our prayer life.
If Jesus says that watching and praying is enough to stop a specific action of the flesh in its tracks, then we need to believe it and put processes in place to accomplish it. But how will we know what processes to put in place? Here is where it comes full circle.
The conviction of the Holy Spirit leads and guides you as to people, places, and things that need to be removed, and people, places, and things that need to be added. But what begins to worm its way in, if you're not careful when you are consistently falling short of the mark, is compromise. Even if you're getting the right thoughts coming in filtered through the Holy Spirit and you're comparing yourself against the right thing, which is the Word of God in Jesus Christ, and you're still falling short in areas, then compromise can come in. That is where it'll start to erode the positive processes that you are placing into your recovery. Because with compromise comes a different, dangerous form of justification.
Salvation has justification. When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you're now justified in Christ. You have the imputed righteousness of Christ, which means his righteousness is what God sees when He looks at you. When you begin to reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit to surrender an area of your life further, and bow to compromise instead of conviction, then you start another form of justification: a dangerous one called self-justification. You are beginning to justify YOURSELF backwards out of the justification of Christ. The ramifications and extent that you can accomplish that are in debate in Christian theology, so I definitely am not opening that can of worms, but let’s just leave it at the fact that it is not a good place to be at in your walk with Christ nor your recovery.
When you begin to self-justify, you recognize that for whatever reason you can’t get close enough to the standard of Christ in an area of your life to close that last 5-10% that we talked about. You are in a painful place in your recovery where the final, deepest, darkest attachments of the world have to be severed from your life, but you don’t think you can do it. It hurts too much. These failures are making me look too bad. So, you begin to justify yourself against something that makes you feel good. Something that you feel you can actually control.
That's a place you don't want to go because you're taking your eyes off the prize, you're taking your eyes off the focus of Christ. If you could have controlled it yourself, you wouldn’t be dealing with an addiction, right? If you are pulling away from God’s control, and you don’t have control, then guess who will begin asserting control again? That’s right, Satan. You are playing right into his plan.
Let the conviction of the Holy Spirit do it's work in your life and in your recovery. Don't allow compromise to rob you of the victory that can come from true and full surrender. Remember this final thought.