"Yet for all of God's good will toward us He is unable to grant us our heart's desires till all our desires have been reduced to one...Him". A.W. Tozer. (A.W. Tozer was pastor of the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago for 31 years).
In every program of recovery, the ultimate focus is finding what the old-timers refer to as "their Higher Power." Of course if you come and visit with us on Saturday night, you understand quickly that our Higher Power has a name, and that name would be Jesus.
I think the actual words of Step # 2 are "We come to believe in a Power greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity." I think a stumbling block to some is the three words COME - TO - BELIEVE.
It almost sounds like it is a simple matter of having the right thought, or turning your mental faculties by your own will and strength. It isn't. Belief starts in the heart. Note: this is a truth to applies to everyone, not just people in addiction.
Now I'm not smart enough to lay out all the why's and the how's of this particular thing, this belief rising up in a person. I do know that it involves the simple fact of a person being sick and tired of being sick and tired. It is more than simply wanting to escape the pain and destruction so we could continue in our old ways. It involves the will to be free. The search for something or someone who can relive the torment that goes on in the mind and the heart. A Power could break the strangle hold our sin/addiction has over us.
There is a connection made when our heart and thoughts line up and look to Jesus as being the answer. The reality of what He is capable of doing (or at least in our minds even the possibility) in our lives draws us to Him. In A.A. jargon, we read in Step # 3 about the act of turning over will and live to His care. This is known as salvation...being saved...being born again. While it is a simple act, it is more of me responding to Jesus' invitation to a new life. It is me confessing to Jesus my sins...the destruction I created through my choices. My willful disobedience to live my life outside of His will for me. It is me receiving His forgiveness for said sins. The kicker comes when He places His Holy Spirit in me. Here is the guide I have needed to help me walk through and navigate the life I have been given.I don't go through this act in order to find Jesus for myself. I do this because Jesus has found me,and is calling me into a life and journey I could never provide on my own.
Because all of this real....
Because Jesus is who He revealed Himself to be to me....
Because I find myself actually being a new creation according to II Corinthians 5:17....
He becomes the desire of my heart.
My main focus is no longer sobriety...My main focus becomes Him. Sobriety is a by product of my changed life.
I want to know Jesus even more than I currently do.
I want to hang out with others who have fallen in love with Him.
I want to not just read His word, but study it and understand what He expects of me.
I want to please Him.
Now that sounds like a worthy pursuit. Something that has grit and substance to it as I grow daily, moving farther and farther away from the "OLD" me.
Think on these things today.
God on you...
mbb
No comments:
Post a Comment