Complacency and Accountability

That's why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go. 1 Corinthians 4:17 (The Life Recovery Bible)

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in recovery is complacency. We travel a distance down the recovery road and thin we have got it all together. We no longer need to attend meetings, apply the principles of recovery to our lives. We no longer need to fellowship with others or share our walk with them.

Complacency grows out of a false sense of security. Recovery can bring false security setting us to thinking all is well and when a problem arises or temptation is placed before us we fall, not meaning to- we just drop our guards. God has a plan for each of us, abandoning His plan mean we are also abandoning His help and can only lead to relapse.

Complacency is evidence we are not applying what we have learned. Often in recovery we begin well, learn all we need to learn, do all we need to do. But as we progress we stop applying what we have learned. We find easier, softer ways of living recovery, ways that are less inconvenient to our new found lifestyle. The principles of recovery require daily application in our lives. We must rededicate our lives to God daily, pray for Him to reveal His will for our lives and give us what we need to continually grow in our relationship with Him.

Complacency leads to relapse. Complacency leads to sin. Sin leads to relapse and relapse leads to death. In recovery we can become discouraged. It all seems too hard. We become complacent about our addictions and begin to believe we have got them beat. At these times we all need to remember where we came from, what we and God had to do to change that and that if we relapse we may never get back to where we are now.

One of the ways we can avoid complacency is through obtaining and accountability partner. Someone we trust in whom we can confide and be honest with. Someone who will identify complacency building in us and bring it to our attention. Someone who will remind us what we have learned and our need to apply it daily our lives.

Accountability means taking personal responsibility for our recovery. How easy it can be for us to overlook our own responsibilities in recovery and blame God when things go wrong. Unfortunately this attitude does not solve problems when they arise. When things go wrong in our lives the first place we need to look is within ourselves. What action or attitude is causing us to react the way we do? We then need to pray, wait on God's response and follow His direction in making things right.

In the scripture above Paul sent Timothy to the Corinthian believers to remind them of what he had taught them. He realized they needed someone to hold them accountable to the truth they had been taught. Someone to encourage them to persevere in their faith in God. Accountability in recovery is important. Accountability partners are there to help and remind us what works in recovery. They are also there to help us develop faithfulness as we grow in our relationship with God.