Miracles in Recovery

Don’t quit before the recovery happens!

People with an addiction, sometimes during recovery, allude to the “incredible coincidences” behind finding the program or facility that worked a magical abstinence and subsequent fruitful way of life. Invariably, faith in coincidence will provoke advice from someone with more time in the program: “You are mistaken. There are no coincidences in a program combating dependencies and compulsions. What are often mistaken for magical events are miracles for which God chooses to remain anonymous.”

Those struggling with various dependencies, from co-dependency to overeating, come to realise that the miracle of surrender, which marks the beginning of any recovery, is just the start. Miracles are not reserved for a select few but are a constant presence for all who believe in the program’s potential and hope for spiritual progress.

When we experience miracles, we must learn to accept them as part of recovery but not depend on them or anticipate them. They come to everyone in a Higher Power’s time, not at humanity’s bidding.

God’s business is making miracles and you are one of them.

Remembering the miracles

One’s attitude toward miracles can be a real danger. The failure to recognise and understand each miracle’s living purposes and lessons overwhelms us. Every miracle has a clear message.

Recovering people with an addiction in detox stages and fellowships such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous believe in miracles and accept them as part of arresting incurable addictions. That recovery has been possible for millions of Twelve Step members worldwide reminds us that miracles are still with us. A sober alcoholic is a living miracle!

Yet, in this age of new miracles, an alarming number of those who find recovery return to their active addiction. Some recover quickly, some after years of misery, and some never. Why have they forgotten the miracles of their recovery? In practically every instance, they have failed to act. Recovering addicts cannot just see, enjoy, and forget miracles – they must apply the lesson of miracles.

It is when miracles do not occur that something has gone wrong. 

Asking for miracles

The results of recovery’s miracles are not all physical. The use of any miracle is mainly emotional and spiritual. Savouringmiracles and utilising their messages brings growth and progress in the phases of life.

Forgotten miracles cease to be tools for spiritual use when we lose sight of the fact that lifesaving events occurred because we believe they would happen. Faith and trust were added to belief. Each miracle answers a prayer, and this knowledge brings recovery. When belief, faith, and confidence are absent, a miracle will not appear.

Miracles take substance from unquestioning belief and child-like faith. Without frills or complications, they are easily understood and always recognisable. Such belief is nurtured by patience: God’s delay in answering prayer does not mean God’s denial.

The miracle makers described in the Bible and other sacred writings succeeded best (perhaps only) when there was teamwork, and the recipient believed a miracle maker could and would succeed.

We benefit from our miracles only when we understand our miracles have not been outright gifts. They have been earned in some way, usually through prayer. The suffering addict may merely have cried out, “God help me”, in agony or held a sincere desire for recovery. Or prayer may have been a formal, on-the-knees request for help. But when it comes, the miracle is more than a blessing; it is an act of teamwork within the realm of belief. Neglecting the use of such a product of wish-granting and lesion-teaching would be wasteful. We will learn from our miracles if we remember no demands are implied in “ask and you shall receive.”

When one accepts a miracle as an outcome of sincere prayer, it becomes plain that miracles will be used for spiritual progress. We must recognise that prayer is behind miracles to fully understand that our purpose in living is in the revelations of miracles in recovery. This is more evident when, in prayer, one employs some self-examination and much meditation. Faith in the experienced miracles should make it plain that miracles are meant to be an influence, not merely a temporary reactor. Faith is the foundation of freedom from fear.

Action is the magic word

As in every other recovery phase, action is the key to experiencing and sharing miracles. A miracle is an emotional experience and a call to positive and constructive action. Even the meditative aspect of a miracle is about freeing oneself from internal debates and taking decisive steps forward.

One effect of experiencing a miracle is developing a sense of belonging in a new world of recovery, love, friendship, and caring. From this comes the desire to share, for the joys of miracles are not the sole property of the recipient. One who experiences a miracle is meant to pass its messages along.

Blinding lights and choral music do not accompany the revelations emerging from recovery miracles but result from a growing awareness of truths. The resultant messages are practical rather than fantasy. 

Miracles often challenge us to refurbish and enlarge upon the elements of living that brought about the miracles – such as faith itself. One grows to trust the usefulness of a faith that can inspire a miracle. Faith is spelled a-c-t-i-o-n. 

In this way, faith becomes a motivator of progress. It can change lives. After all, it inspires miracles, significantly changing our living and thinking patterns. For example, those who learn from living through a miracle find an attitude of doing things because they ought to and want to, rather than must do and have to do.

The changes created by miracles make clear that merely having faith is insufficient to produce recovery. The recipient of the miracle cannot rest and relax. Without action, faith will fade. Unselfish, constructive action, and self-sacrifice are needed to make faith effective.

Trusting in miracles

Fear and despair disappear when a miracle takes place. Those who feel the power of a recovery miracle know anything good can and will happen because they have seen it and accepted the change. A miracle builds both resistance to compulsions and vigilance against complacency. Furthermore, a miracle will teach that resistance and vigilance can be natural and comfortable if permitted.

The lessons of miracles go beyond the “anything-can-happen” attitude into one that, without the taint of ego, tells the recovering addict that what should happen will happen. All recovering persons know certain significant changes have occurred because they are meant to have come true. All this is possible if the elements that produce miracles – love, gratitude, humility, honesty, faith, belief, and trust – are used to prepare people with addiction for real healing at the proper time.

If there is a common denominator among those in recovery, it is that we each benefit from a personal miracle in some way. This makes it easy to share problems and solutions. Denial requires us to be shaken up and immersed violently into reality to get the idea of recovery—miracles do this exceptionally well. After experiencing such rude awakenings, we have little trouble believing in the nearness of a Higher Power.

Growth from miracles

An accepted miracle brings gratitude and humility. Praying becomes more serene and tolerant, less angry and painful. We pray with a more relaxed form of courage, fewer anxieties and less stress.

Each miracle savoured will bring us closer to freedom from self-pity. Miracles expose the futility of feeling sorry for oneself, and the miracle receiver learns to overcome the tendency to wallow in self-pity. However, understanding the lessons of a miracle requires forgiving ourselves and others. There also must be love, for a person cannot trust without love.

The reality of a miracle demonstrates that while the joy of finding a way out of suffering and into the peace of recovery is great, all pain cannot cease during change and growth. We learn from the miracle that pain is not our alone. All humanity feels hurt – each person makes spiritual progress by developing trial-and-error solutions to pain. If we ignore the lessons of miracles, we face the real tragedy of never knowing the source or solution to each painful experience.

All compulsive people are excessive by nature, but our miracles show us that this obsessiveness can be made useful by shifting it from overdoing harmful emotions to going to great lengths with beneficial ones. The simplest ways are learned early: listening, attending meetings, seeking new friendships, and serving others.

For realities of miracles, we can learn the vast difference between counselling others and sharing with them. The latter works in areas where the advice-giving style fails.

Despite the joy that overflows with every recovery miracle, each person is unique and happy to be allowed to march to a personal drumbeat. Miracles do not make robots of people. Miracles do not happen to robots!

In the aftermath of any miracle, there is the revelation that there is a great difference between serenity and complacency. Every dramatic change reveals that problems are solved by striving to master living problems rather than escaping life’s realities.

The honesty inherent in miracles makes it clear we cannot turn away from people, places, or things just because they bear potential threats to our recovery. We, whose addiction has extremely hurt, will not fear minor pain. Miracles show us the pleasures of coping, even if pain is involved.

A miracle is a challenge to accept the obstacles to recovery aggressively. Face the hazards of living without addictive crutches to grow spiritually and approach true serenity. Because a miracle is not static but often fervent action, we know the truth of the phrase, “You gotta grow or you gotta go.” We know that even serenity can stagnate without emotional growth in our recovery.

A miracle is the most extraordinary evidence we will ever have that belief, faith, and trust are the most helpful gifts the mind and heart are given.

When we experience a miracle of recovery, we learn, above all else, that the blessings of miracles must be shared. A miracle worth cherishing is never a gift to a single person but to countless many. With recovery miracles, giving without receiving or receiving without giving is impossible.

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