New Ground Discipleship Group

05/29/2026

New Ground Discipleship Group bake sale table. I wanna say thank you to Ashley Waid and Lonnie❤️Jennifer Hearnsberger and Olivia and Amber Ledford!! Ms Katie Looney and Karen Hughes ms, Dorthy and Sissy Maire Launius!! Because of yall support I can do what I do!!! I love you all big.

05/29/2026

05/29/2026

Recovery teaches us many hard lessons, but patience may be one of the hardest. We live in a world that wants instant results—instant healing, instant change, instant freedom. We want the struggle to end today. We want the pain, cravings, broken relationships, and consequences to disappear overnight.

But God often works through process, not instant perfection.

Patience in recovery is learning to trust God while He is still working. It is choosing obedience even when you cannot yet see the outcome. It is waking up each day and taking the next right step, even when progress feels slow.

The enemy will whisper, “You should be further along by now.”
God says, “Keep going. I am still working in you.”

Patience is not passive waiting; it is active trust. It means continuing to pray when answers feel delayed. It means continuing to show up, to do the work, to stay accountable, to seek God, even when the breakthrough hasn’t fully come.

Think about a seed planted in the ground. For a season, nothing seems visible. But beneath the surface, roots are forming. Growth is happening where no one can see it. Recovery is often like that. God may be doing His deepest work in you in the hidden places.

James 1:4 says:
“Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

Patience is producing something in you—strength, endurance, wisdom, and dependence on Christ.

If you feel frustrated with your pace today, remember this: delayed progress is not denied progress. Every sober day, every honest conversation, every surrendered prayer is evidence that God is moving.

You do not have to arrive all at once. You only have to remain faithful for today.

05/28/2026

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Recovery is not meant to be walked alone. One of the hardest parts of recovery is learning how to build healthy relationships after years of broken trust, unhealthy attachments, isolation, or surrounding ourselves with people who fed our addiction instead of our healing.

Addiction often teaches us to hide, manipulate, withdraw, or seek connection in unhealthy ways. Recovery teaches us the opposite: honesty, accountability, trust, and real connection.

Healthy relationships are built on truth. They require us to be honest about where we are, humble enough to ask for help, and wise enough to set boundaries. Not every relationship belongs in your recovery journey. Some people will strengthen your walk with God and your sobriety; others may pull you back toward old patterns.

The Bible reminds us that the people around us shape us. In Proverbs 27:17, it says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Healthy relationships sharpen us. They challenge us to grow, speak truth when we need correction, and encourage us when we feel weak.

Jesus Himself modeled healthy relationships. He walked closely with His disciples, was honest with them, corrected them in love, and allowed Himself to be supported by them. If the Son of God chose community, we need it too.

In recovery, healthy relationships look like:

* People who tell you the truth, even when it is hard
* People who pray with you and point you to Christ
* People who celebrate your victories without envy
* People who respect your boundaries
* People who hold you accountable with love

Sometimes building healthy relationships means letting go of unhealthy ones. That can be painful, but God often removes what is damaging to make room for what is healing.

Ask God to help you become the kind of person who builds others up. Recovery is not just about finding healthy people; it is about becoming healthy enough to contribute to healthy relationships.

05/27/2026

But all things should be done decently and in order.”

Recovery is not built on good intentions alone—it is built on structure.

Many people enter recovery wanting freedom, but freedom without structure often turns into chaos. God is a God of order, not confusion. He knows that healing requires discipline, consistency, and boundaries. Structure is not meant to restrict you; it is meant to protect you.

Think about a house. No matter how beautiful it looks on the outside, if it has no solid framework, it will collapse when pressure comes. Recovery is the same way. Your freedom needs a framework.

That structure might look like:

* Starting your day in prayer
* Reading God’s Word daily
* Going to meetings consistently
* Being honest with accountability partners
* Setting healthy boundaries
* Avoiding places, people, and situations that pull you backward

These things may feel repetitive at times, but repetition builds strength.

God often works through daily disciplines, not dramatic moments. We love mountaintop breakthroughs, but most recovery happens in the quiet, ordinary choices of obedience. Every time you choose structure over impulse, you are building a stronger foundation.

Look at Matthew 7:24–25, where Jesus talks about the wise man who built his house on the rock. The storm still came—but the house stood because it was built right.

Storms will come in recovery. Temptation will come. Hard days will come. The question is: Have you built enough structure to stand when they do?

05/26/2026

May 26, 2026 – Be Aware of Your Surroundings

Scripture: Proverbs 13:20 – “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

Devotional: The people and influences around us shape the direction of our lives more than we often realize. When we surround ourselves with friends and family who walk by faith, speak truth, and love with wisdom, we are strengthened to stay close to the Lord. But when we drift even a little from God’s path, the change can seem small at first and become much larger before we notice it.
That is why it matters so much to walk alongside those who speak love and truth. Real love does not always flatter; sometimes it corrects, steadies, and heals. Yes, it can hurt to hear truth, but that kind of love is medicine for the heart and protection for the soul.

Prayer: Lord, place wise and faithful people around me who help me stay close to You. Give me the humility to receive truth, the courage to walk in it, and the grace to love others in the same healing way. Amen.

Action: Take a moment today to evaluate one close relationship or influence in your life. Ask yourself whether it is helping you walk closer to God, and if needed, make one wise adjustment.

Word of the Day: Influence — the power to shape thoughts, choices, and direction.

Wisdom of the Day: You become like the voices you keep closest to your heart.

05/25/2026

Scripture:
“Do you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” — The Gospel of Luke

Recovery is serious business.

When Jesus was found in the temple, He told Mary and Joseph that He had to be about His Father’s business. He understood something powerful: purpose requires focus.

The same is true in recovery.

If we are going to walk in freedom, we have to make recovery our business. Not casually. Not when it’s convenient. Not only when life falls apart. Recovery requires intentional daily investment.

Too many people want freedom while still handling old business—old habits, old relationships, old thinking, old environments. But God is calling us to close the doors on the business of bo***ge and open ourselves fully to His business of restoration.

The enemy runs a business too. His business is stealing peace, killing purpose, and destroying lives. Jesus made that clear in The Gospel of John. Every lie we entertain, every compromise we excuse, every secret we protect is like signing a contract with destruction.

But God’s business is different.

His business is rebuilding what addiction tore down.
His business is restoring what shame tried to bury.
His business is renewing minds, healing hearts, and giving people a future.

In recovery, we have to conduct spiritual business daily:

* Taking inventory of our hearts
* Making amends when necessary
* Guarding our thoughts
* Staying accountable
* Spending time in prayer and the Word

This isn’t just maintenance. This is kingdom business.

You cannot build a new life while managing old destruction.

05/22/2026

Addicts don't want to be addicts.
Addicts don't want to die.
Addicts don't want to throw their lives away.
Addicts don't want their children to grow up without parents.
They just want to feel better. They just want to feel normal. They just want to stop feeling everything else for a little while.
Addicts are people, just like you and me.
Addicts come in all forms, dependent on many different things, drugs just being one version of dependence.
The problem is that our system is limited, laboring under the illusion that drug addiction is a criminal issue, a medical issue on the fringes that can be fixed with proper rehab. That all ignores the fact that drugs aren't the problem...what led that person to drugs in the first place is the problem. The drugs are just a means to an end.
Rehab doesn't fix addicts. It primarily treats the physical symptoms of withdrawal.
Prison doesn't fix addicts. It just puts them in a cage for a while.
Even death doesn't fix addicts. It just leaves the people who love them here, forever wondering how different things might have been.
The only way to really deal with addiction is one that is multi-faceted, one that makes us uncomfortable. It is messy and complicated and takes a lifetime of effort. It sometimes involves relapses and second chances and third chances fourth fifth sixth endless chances. It involves support, sometimes sponsors. It involves therapy and counseling until whatever the root cause is has been revealed and addressed. It involves consideration of not just the physical withdrawal, but the emotional withdrawal, the social withdrawal, the psychological withdrawal. It requires a mental health system with adequate resources, which clearly doesn't exist. It requires us to do better. It requires support instead of judgement.
And sometimes, even when all those things exist, it fails. It fails because addiction can take people and swallow them whole. It can rob them of everything they value, everyone they love. It can strip them of everything they care about, rob them of reason and logic. It can convince them that they aren't worthy, that they have failed not just themselves, but everyone else. It tells them that they are broken and irreparable. Then it shoves them back down and does it again.
Our society says it failed because they didn't try hard enough, because they were selfish, because they were stupid.
How exactly is saying things like this going to help anyone?
The short answer - it isn't. It just allows us to believe that if we try hard enough, if we care about other people enough, if we are smart enough, we can avoid addiction. Our false sense of security hurts those who need help the most.
Never mind the damage done to the people they leave behind.
To those who claim Any ones death due to an addiction isn't tragic, I ask you to think about his children, his parents, his Family...I'm sure they would disagree with you.
Until you've been there, you can't know what it is like.
Until you've watched someone you love try and claw their way out only to be dragged back in again, you can't know what it is like.
Until you've seen someone throw everything away just to feel better for a moment, you can't know what it is like.
Until you've dealt with someone desperately in need of help who turned to self medicating instead, you can't know what it is like.
Until you've had to tease out where the line between believing in someone and enabling them is, you can't know what it is like.
Until you've had to make choices no one should ever have to make, you can't know what it is like.
Until you've done all you can to help someone who doesn't want it, you can't know what it is like.
We all have our demons. We all have our issues.
Many of us are closer to being addicts than we would ever admit out loud.
Some of us know how easy it would be to turn.
Some of us are addicts already.
Some of us already walk the line.
God Bless us ALL!