While assembling my 4th step resentment list I found that the best way to cope with the resentments was to first pray for and forgive those that were on my list. In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in the chapter "How It Works" it states, "...we realize that the people who had wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way they disturbed us they, like ourselves, were sick too. We ask God to help us grant them the same tolerance, pity and patience we would grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to ourselves, 'Perhaps this is a sick person, how can I be helpful to them? God save me from being angry, Thy will be done.' God will show us how to take a kind and tolerant view of each and everyone." As I drew closer to God this began to happen naturally, as it can as well for you.
As an alcoholic I do find that resentment is the number one malfeasance to a serene and peaceful life. If we are to have a clear state of consciousness that is free of conflict; if we are to lead an addiction-free life - a life in which resentment doesn't cause such conflict in our mind then manifest in our behavior - then we must let go of all of our human resentments. There is often no way possible to do this without the aid of the Highest Power.
Written by Armand
Written by Armand
My life wants energy - clean, pure, unobstructed, efficient. To me, that is a basic necessity, as important as water or sunshine. I know the source of that energy to be The Power Within me, acquired and made personal through the action of all Twelve Steps of Recovery. One resentment can derail the entire effectiveness of that energy to the point of psychic drain. Long ago a friend told me that a mere drop of mercury in the Pacific Ocean can change it forever. While that sounds oversimplified in context, it is, nonetheless, a reality when I am operating only within my human nature, the nesting place for my unpredictable self-will. Thus, I can't live there, don't want to live there, and can only avoid living there by living outside of my will, and inside His. It's the ultimate gift of Recovery but it's solely reliant on my soul reliance.
ReplyDeleteMichael the thought that a life lived harboring even some resentment will alter what can be a beautiful life experience is true. In the Big book it says 'either God is or He isn't. Either God is everything or He is nothing. What was our choice to be?" A life lived in the will of God is not capable of manifesting resentment...Thanks....Armand
DeleteThis Comment Is From A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic
ReplyDeleteArmand,
Lets contemplate the "The Lords Prayer," specifically, how many times our hearts have stumbled over those words " as we forgive others" and the glorious freedom contained within, not only for my own life but the lives of those still living in the bondage of self. The Author of this prayer has called each of us to the awesome opportunity of intercessory prayer. And so I pray, Dear God today I want to pray for all those You have placed on my heart who are in distress because of the guilt and shame of unforgiven sin in their lives. I know from my own life the pain and anguish my sins have caused me and those around me and now out of gratitude and praise for Your forgiveness I want to pray for those people whom have harmed me and that I need to learn to love just as You have loved me.
Lord, I desire that I become a willing instrument of Your love and yet I confess it's difficult to love others as You have loved me. As I continue my prayer my mind is flooded by people I have used for my own purposes with little or no thought of what was best for them yet I am eternally comforted that You have completely forgiven me. Please, help me also to forgive them. Lord, open their hearts to Your love through me. Show me how I can be a partaker of your pursuit of them. Enable me to fully apprehend that to truly love my enemies is to will the ultimate good of another by my every thought act and deed so that I may be able to "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes all understanding and be filled with the fullness of God."
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic.
Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic 'forgive us our trespasses as we have forgiven those who have trespassed against us."
DeleteHealing can't occur without forgiveness...Thank you...Armand
Beautiful reflections! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous You are welcome...Thank you...Armand
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