34 - Diagnosing Codependency
Episode highlights:
The Boy & The Ogre: Finding Freedom from Codependency by Chip Dodd
God is a great garbage man; He wastes nothing in our lives.
God values His own creation;
He picks up what we throw away, and
He recognizes that some things need to be redeemed, repurposed, revitalized and resurrected.
Bring your child-heart to God and give Him your pain, suffering, and your struggle, and even your questions. God can deliver you. He delivers people through circumstances, prayer, His word, other people, and illumination of your heart.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength,” Ephesians 1:18-19
Paul was a man who knew that to love, is to suffer. Therefore, he needed a place to take his suffering. Paul refers to God in this passage:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
So, we can either choose to believe that while God is good, we still suffer; yet we have a place to take our suffering. We can take it to God, who cares for us.
OR
We will stifle suffering unnecessarily, and just live miserably.
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. ‘Eat and drink!’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you.”
Proverbs 23:7
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23