It has been our experience that there is no one-size-fits-all recovery plan. God is a God who seems to delight in diversity. God made us as unique individuals and responds to our specific needs with respect for this uniqueness. God is not limited to counselors, or to pastors, or to twelve step groups to get us the help we need. God often chooses to use counselors or pastors or twelve step groups, but whoever God chooses to use in our lives, it is always God who is bringing the healing.

It is God’s Spirit who is our Counselor (John 16: 6); it is God’s Spirit who “helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26); it is God’s Spirit who “strengthens us in our inner beings so that we can grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is” (Ephesians 3:16-19).

God uses many different means to respond to our need for help. God uses friendships, churches, support groups, counselors, treatment programs and other resources. Often, God puts together a network of support - a kind of search and rescue team to provide the help we need. Whatever resources God uses to deliver us and heal us, our part is to continue to acknowledge our need for help and to persevere in seeking help wherever it is available to us.

Often, God uses friendships to bring healing. Friendships can provide many gifts that other resources may not be able to provide. First of all, friendships are mutual. We listen to and care about and support our friends. Our friends listen to and care about and support us. Secondly, friendships can be spontaneous. We don’t have to limit our interactions to prearranged times and places. We can call each other and be with each other as the need arises. And finally, friendships provide intimacy on many levels. We can socialize together, play together, talk together and pray together. The richest friendships are often intentional, committed friendships; that is, friendships that are not only spontaneous, but which are also planned and scheduled on the calendar. Friendships have limits and they are not always helpful - but often God uses them to bless us with love and grace.

God also often uses churches as places of help and healing in our lives. Church can offer us a place of worship, a place of community, a place to focus on God’s Word, a place of spiritual counsel, and a place for prayer support. In worship and in communion we are reminded of who God is, of his love and his active commitment to us in our brokenness. In community we are reminded that we are not alone. By focusing on God’s Word and receiving spiritual counsel we see God’s grace more clearly. With the support of a community of prayer, God’s healing presence can be experienced in powerful ways. Churches have limits and they are not always helpful, but often God uses them to bless us with love and grace.

Another resource God uses is support groups. Support groups, whether they are twelve step groups or groups focused on a specific struggle (such as recovery from sexual abuse), provide a place where we can focus in a very clear way on our needs and issues. They provide a place of accountability and a place of special grace and understanding. People who are facing the same struggles we are facing can break the isolation that comes with our addiction or our pain. Support groups offer a place to celebrate growth in recovery. And they are a place of commitment; a place where we commit to meet with others to do the work of telling the truth and asking for support. Support groups have limits and they are not always helpful - but often God uses them to bless us with love and grace.

Sometimes God uses counselors for a season in our lives. Counseling offers us an opportunity to focus in a very specific way on our needs and struggles in life, with the help of someone who is professionally trained and experienced in the complexities of human development, family dynamics, addictions, trauma and the interplay of psychology and physiology. Counseling provides an opportunity for gaining self understanding, being accountable, taking in feed back, learning new skills, receiving nurturing and care, and doing the hard work of changing with the support of someone who has come to know us intimately. Counselors have limits and they are not always helpful - but often God uses them to bless us with love and grace.

Another resource God may use is a treatment center. Treatment programs provide a time out to work intensively and with lots of support on issues such as addictions, co-dependency, eating disorders, depression and abuse. Such programs offer a rich mixture of resources that typically include medical care, support groups and counseling. Treatment programs have limits and they are not always helpful - but often God uses them to bless us with love and grace.