Thursday Thoughts | Remembering the Day I Quit Drinking

On August 11, 1995 I took what would be my last drink. On August 12, 1995, after years of struggling with alcohol and addiction, by the will and grace of God, I started on a new journey of sobriety. While it hasn’t been easy—there have been numerous highs and lows—-it has been a blessing that I am grateful to God for and thankful that I have experienced.

If you’re currently struggling with addiction, know that you’re not alone. Others have been where you are today. There is hope. There is a God who loves you and wants to see you fulfill the promise your life holds. There are people from all walks of life ready and willing to help you. You’re not alone. Life CAN be better.

It’s up to you to take the first step.

Yes, it seems hard. Yes, it’s frightening. Yes, it will be difficult. But YOU CAN.

I get that you are desperate for change. All of us in recovery know that feeling all to well. The pain of remaining the same is in a head-on battle with the pain of change.

You recognize that your life has become unmanageable yet you hold on to your current state of misery because of fear. You think the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. But there’s no devil waiting behind the door leading to sobriety. There is only love, hope, and faith. And love shines the greatest among these other things.

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¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. ¹⁴ How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

The Gospel of Matthew 7:13–14 (HCSB)

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There is acceptance and understanding from people just like you, who struggle with all the same things you struggle with daily. It’s like coming home to a room full of family you didn’t know you had.

Aren’t you tired of being sick and tired? I know I was. I didn’t want to go on for one more day. I had reached the point where I was ready to cash out. GAME OVER.

But rather than pull the trigger, I fell to my knees and cried out.

I’d had an encounter with the Lord that Friday. I knew that where I found myself, who I had become because of my addictions, wasn’t who He wanted me to be. So I took a step of faith…a small step at first, followed by another step.

According to the Sobriety Clock, I’ve been clean and sober for 9,496 days. The day that matters most is TODAY.

My life today is incredible because I recognize the role the hand of God played in it. I am thankful and grateful for the 26 years of recovery I’ve had and look forward to the next 26. The journey has been amazing.

Do what’s in front of you. Take the first step and then the next. YOU CAN.

Blessings,

The Devotional Guy™

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The Twelve Steps of Recovery

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and our addictions—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

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