Lesson 1
DENIAL
Principle 1: Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.
“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.” (Matthew 5:3)
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.
“I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)
Please begin your time together by reading “The First Step, Day 1” of the Celebrate Recovery Daily Devotional.
As we begin The Journey Continues, we each need to start off by answering this one question: “Have I put on the mask of denial again”?
Before you can make any further progress in this exciting new step study, you need to face your denial. It doesn’t matter how long you have been in recovery — you may have been working the steps and principles for years — denial can rear its ugly head and return at any time! You may trade addictions, begin new compulsive behaviors, or be on the road to relapse without even knowing it. By removing your mask of denial, you can take your recovery to the next level, or your recovery can even begin again! Even if you feel that you haven’t actively stepped back into denial, denial is something you must be on guard against.
We need to begin The Journey Continues by searching our hearts to see if we have allowed any denial back into our recovery. So let’s get this new exciting journey started!
D — Disrupts our progress in our recoveries
Hiding our feelings, returning to denial, freezes our recovery and binds our progress.
“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” (1 Timothy 4:15)
“Would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?” (Psalm 44:21)
E — Enables old hurts, hang-ups, and habits to return
As we continue to go through this program, we learn that it is only in the present that positive change can occur. The return of old hurts, hang-ups, and habits makes us unable to live and enjoy God’s plans for us in the present.
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.” (Proverbs 26:11)
N—Negatively affects the repair work we have done on our relationships
As we slip back into denial, we again start to isolate from those close to us. We start to destroy the new trust and fellowship we have been given by them.
“My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.” (Psalm 38:11)
“All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.” (Ecclesiastes 8:9)
The guilty man is the one who wants to be alone; the man who is right with God does not. . . . The final curse of a disobedient soul is that it becomes a separate, self-conscious individual.
— Oswald Chambers
I — Interrupts our daily walk with God
As we slip further into our denial, it is harder for us to maintain our closeness to God. We think we are fooling everyone, even God. But we are only fooling ourselves.
“Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” (2 John 1:9)
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11:23)
A — Allows risk of possible relapse
As we decrease our closeness to God and others, the more we increase the chance of relapse.
“This is what the LORD says: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ ” (Jeremiah 6:16)
L — Loss of valuable time
The longer we keep our denial hidden, the more time we are wasting that could be spent on continuing to grow. We need to ask God to help us break free from our denial and continue our forward journey in recovery.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:17)
The greatest wasteland in all of our earth . . . our waste of the time that God has given us each day.
— Billy Graham
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
1. Have you noticed that your recovery has been stalled? In what ways has your joy and serenity faded? Describe in detail.
[Your Response Here]
2. Have you begun to believe that you have control over certain aspects of your life? If so, which ones?
[Your Response Here]
3. Have any of your old hurts, hang-ups, or habits begun to fill your mind? (Ask your sponsor or accountability partners if they have seen any old or new negative patterns emerging in you.)
[Your Response Here]
4. Have you begun to struggle with or lost any of your important relationships? List each of them and describe the struggle.
[Your Response Here]
5. In the last six months, have you grown closer to or farther away from God? Describe why you think it has changed.
[Your Response Here]
6. As completely as you can, describe your relationship with God today.
[Your Response Here]
7. Have you been having any thoughts of “the good old days”? Any thoughts that you can handle your struggles differently this time? Write down the specific thoughts you been having....
