Will initiating recovery mode on an iPhone permanently disable it until it is recovered? I'm trying to solve an issue I'm having, and I thought that placing the phone in recovery mode temporarily might resolve the problem. I'm afraid to try this though, since the phone contains valuable information, it would be dangerous for me to complete the process and actually recover the phone.

So I want to put it in recovery mode, but not go through with it all the way.

Would a phone normally still be usable after initiating but not going through recovery mode? Or must you complete the recovery process in order to use the phone again?
I had an extra iPhone (that didn't have important information) which I just tried it on. Simply initiating the recovery process (by pressing and hold home button while plugging it into the computer) will not cause anything irreversible to happen on the phone. You still have to click a few buttons on iTunes to start the process.

To go out of recovery mode, simply eject the iPhone through iTunes, disconnect the cable, and restart the phone. It will be in the exact same state it was previously.