This Week In Recovery Lesson
Brainwashed into New Life… Relationship Not Religion
Step 3 of the twelve steps says: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.” The secular skewing of this step is intended help the recovering people to be comfortable with themselves while marginalizing God—Jesus Christ. Many have understood the phrase, “as we understood Him”, to mean God is powerful no matter what I determine is representative of God.
If I believe nature is God, then I will commune with nature: trees, a waterfall, the sun or moon, a hillside, or a bird’s eye view of something in nature that is beautiful. If I believe the powerful force of a group of healing people is God, then I will pray to the healing force. Maybe my higher power, my God, is the universe, or gravity, or an ocean current. These are examples of a number of things that people might find are representative of God since they are more powerful than any person is. So people will pray to these various representatives of those things in the universe that are manifestations of some God somewhere.
While God is in nature, and He is in the universe, and He planted the seeds for those trees to grow, and the powerful ocean currents were His idea, they are not of themselves God. While God is behind the healing force that helps people to get well, the healing force or the people are not God. Actually, seeking God out through the development of prayer rituals and routines around the things that you might deem are representative of God could become a religion devoted to a kind of false god or idol. As you discovered in the Admit section of this teaching, ultimately that false god or idol is you, and the worship of self, in your MEdom condition.
To pray to the God that one comes to understand and believe according to myth, legend, fantasy, fate, karma, romanticism, and so on, is no more than the God of one’s perceptions borne out of his or her imagination. If ultimately God is a figment of one’s imagination, where is the power to recover? If the higher power to recover is originated in the imagination of the recovering person, how can the person’s higher power be greater than the willpower of the addict in need of recovery? If one’s perception and belief of God is anything less than the truth found in the person of Jesus Christ, there can be no relationship with God. Without relationship with God is the absence of authentic power to recover. Therefore, it is necessary that you decide to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and tell Him that in a relationship with Him is where you want to be.
- What does it mean to you to have a relationship with God?
- How would you describe your relationship with God?
- How has your perceptions of God affected your ability and willingness to engage in the process of recovery?
- How do you see your relationship with God improving?
- If your relationship with God was everything you want it to be, what would the relationship look like?
- If your relationship with God was everything you imagine God wanted it to be, what would the relationship look like?
- If your relationship with God was everything you want it to be, and you imagine God wants it to be, what would your life look like?
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 4:46
Conditional Relationships
While God’s love for us is unconditional, the quality of relationship we have with God is conditional. This is evident throughout Scripture. Relationships always have a when-thenquality to them. When one thing happens in relationship, then another thing happens in response. This is true of every relationship you have. It is not a theory; it’s a fact. You apply this fact about relationships to one degree or another everyday.
Don’t believe it? Confront the person in your life that is representative of the best, most loving, mutually compatible relationship you have, and be disgustingly rude to him or her. Be arrogantly selfish and obnoxious. Say horrible things. You don’t even have to cheat on your spouse to drastically alter the character, mood, and attitude he or she exhibits toward you. A few choice words ought to do the trick. You might be saying, “Oh, he’d forgive me” or, “She’s above that sort of thing”. Depending on how awful the thing is that you say or do, it could be awhile for things to return to “normal”, at least to the way they were, even after you tell your spouse that what you did was an experiment that you read written by a Christian Recovery Counselor. This paragraph was written to make a point, please do not go test the waters on this one.
The truth about even our most loving relationships is that one person or the other is at least slightly dominant in the relationship. Why? Because there is always someone in the relationship at least slightly more interested and invested than the other emotionally. This can be tricky because this truth becomes skewed by the reality that one person in the relationship is at least a little bit more secure about themselves in the relationship than the other. So, the power in the relationship belongs to the least interested party. This does not mean, necessarily, that one loves more or less than the other; it simply means that the one who is more secure, even tempered, and less sensitive will tend to have the power in the relationship.
The question is this: In your relationship with God—Jesus Christ, who has the power?
- Considering the power of the least interested party principle, who would you say really has the power in your relationship with God?
- If you responded that God has the power in the relationship, does your life reflect that?
- If you answered “yes”, please explain how your life reflects that God has the power and authority in your life.
- If you answered “no” (Thank you for your honesty), please indicated how having the power in relationship with God affects the relationship?
- What would you say is the benefit to you to be more invested in your relationship with God?
- What would you say is the cost/consequence of being less invested in your relationship with God?
- Do you need for your life to be transformed by God into something better? Explain.
- Will you submit to the lordship of Christ (lordship means authority) by surrendering unto Him your will in order to experience the transformative power of God in your life?
Please click on TWRAC 042 to proceed with This Week’s Recovery Application Challenge.
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