Tag: Evangelical Christianity

Facing Both Ways: When Christian Recovery Loses Its Direction and the Soul Begins to Drift

Timothy R. BermanLeave a comment

I have found moments in my own recovery journey, faith, and life when I realized I have been living divided. One part of my heart longs for God, healing, peace, and truth. Yet, another part wanted to reach back toward toxic patterns, unhealthy attachments, worldly validation, and spiritual compromise. And I found that I am not alone – many people today are exhausted, not because they do not love Christ, because they are attempting to face two different directions at once. This is the spiritual condition A.W. Tozer exposed quite powerfully within Chapter Seven of his work The Set of the Sail. The chapter is titled, Facing Both Ways. Tozer observed a Christianity that spoke Christian lingo while slowly adopting worldly values. He warned of a divided orientation – a soul that attempted to follow God while remaining emotionally attached to the systems that once kept the person in bondage.

For many of us fellow travelers, walking through recovery from addiction, codependency, family dysfunction, spiritual abuse, or faith crisis, this tension feels painfully familiar. Each of us desires freedom, yet sometimes we mourn the chains left behind. We seek Christ, yet fear surrendering our life and will over to His care. We pray for healing yet continue to entertain voices that have wounded us.

However, the Gospel never calls us to a divided direction. Christ invites us into His rest with a wholehearted orientation.

Anchor Verse – Psalm 16:8 (NRSVUE): “I have set the Lord before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”

A divided heart creates instability. Scripture teaches that “the double-minded are unstable in every way” (James 1:8, NRSVUE). Recovery becomes quite fragile when our own direction is unclear. Faith becomes shallow when we attempt to seek both the approval of God and the acceptance of unhealthy systems that tend to distract and lead us away from Him.

Today, let’s take a moment to reflect on how Tozer diagnosed modern Christianity with what he called dual orientation. Theology that faces God, yet desires continue facing the world. The result is spiritual confusion, emotional exhaustion, compromised conviction, and diluted discipleship.

Let’s face it: many Christians on a path of recovery understand this quite deeply and personally. Addiction itself is often rooted in divided affection – wanting peace while feeding into the chaos. Desiring intimacy while hiding in the darkness of dysfunction. Wanting God yet remaining emotionally tethered to destructive patterns.

Christ does not merely improve our attitude and behavior – He reorients the entire person. Are you ready for a spiritual reorientation of the heart, mind, and spirit today?

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Day 1: The Mercy of Nothingness

Timothy R. BermanLeave a comment

And it came to pass…that Moses fell unto the earth. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. And he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing which thing I never had supposed.
~ Moses 1:9-10 ~

What if your rock bottom was Holy and Sacred Grounds? We are taught to fear the moment we lose control – when our strength fails and we are left with nothing. However, when we look to Moses, he is not defeated; he is positioned for power. In Moses 1, a prophet comes face-to-face with God and realizes a terrifying truth: Man is nothing. For those of us in recovery, this is not an insult. It is the first breath of freedom.

Today marks the beginning of our devotional series: Daily Exodus – Discipline of Deliverance as we study through the Old Testament for Come Follow Me. This new devotional series is for Latter-day Saint Christians, and Evangelical Christians seeking the discipline of deliverance from addiction, codependent relationships, and overcoming faith crisis, fear, doubt, and even anxiety or depression. Grounded in scriptural truth, grace of God, and revealing Jesus Christ along the sacred journey and path.

For much of our lives, we pour time and energy into proving we’re enough. We construct walls of reputation, career success, and even religious performance to keep out the unsettling fear that we might fall short. For those wrestling with addiction, codependency, perfectionism, or a crisis of faith, this often comes with waves of doubt, fear, anxiety, and even depression. Our very enslavement to these compulsive natures oftentimes collapses when these levies eventually break. We are left staring at the wreckage of our own will, forced to admit a devastating truth: without God, we are utterly and spiritually bankrupt.

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