Part of the definition of belief is to Trust. Trust is the key component of belief. When I was a teenager I broke my relationship with God. It was a relationship that had developed through the early religious training I received in Catholic grade school. The fact that I broke my relationship with God did not change that I had always believed in God. I believed in God even while I was living the life of an alcoholic -- in utter pandemonium. My behaviors had nothing to do with my belief in Him. It was my lack of trust in Him which led me astray from a relationship with Him for so long. Trust, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something".
To have such certainty for the Supreme Power requires humility, exactly that which the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous gives us. The incorporation of the steps of such a program into our lives begins the break down of our egos, so that humility (and all the many benefits from it) can seep into our lives. After some time we actually develop a hunger for it. I have learned in my experience with the program of Alcoholics Anonymous that humility is the key which unlocks the door to the grace of God. It is only through this grace that we remain sober and recovered from our addictions and the manifestation of our character defects. Our egos must be deflated and our human desires subrogated to the will of God. Belief is necessary but trust is essential.
TRUST IS THE KEY COMPONENT OF BELIEF.
Written By Armand
Foer me, Trust is the key word of the entire program of recovery. I found it in Step Two when I learned that I had to come to believe in the process that would lead me to the Truth. As you point out, trust preceded faith - an area where I found myself wanting and confused. Instinctively I trusted AA but it took time for that trust to take root. That occurred only by incorporating The Steps into my life wherein my life changed into its original state of goodness. It is only from this reawakened level of consciousness and being that I am effective. Effective enough to give myself away.
ReplyDeleteMichael you are effective as you have become the human being God created you to be...Thank you...Armand
DeleteWhen there is hope, I can then begin to believe that God is there within me. I can ask, praying to God to show me how I can trust in him. In the midst of pain and struggle I must find hope, persist, believe and begin to trust.
ReplyDeleteJessica trust in God is the purpose of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous...Thank you...Armand
DeleteI agree that trust is a key ingredient to belief, as belief is a key ingredient to faith. Faith allows me to believe in something without needing to see or witness it. That can not happen without me being humbled before God, which alcohol amply provided. Once I had faith in AA as a pathway and to God, my eyes were opened. I was born again in the Holy Spirit. My religon suddenly made sense to me. I first realized this when I completed my 7th step with my sponsor. Humility, belief, trust and faith was the metamorphosis I went through that permits me to do my 11th step with my Creator on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteJim as you said ' my religion suddenly made sense to me. For me the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous breathed life into me when I read the Bible...Thank you...Armand
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ReplyDelete"We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"...Even from the earliest moments of my having attained the "age of reason," knowledge of the will of God had never been a problem. Trusting that by following His will I would have a joyful and pleasant life experience however was an entirely different story. I simply didn't have the desire nor required will power to delay my overwhelming appetite for instant gratification, often at the expense of others, and the result was always the same deep sense of guilt followed by an overwhelming compulsion to avoid, at all costs, the shameful consequences and social rejection of my actions. Usually by lying, but the effort to maintain an illusion of outward innocence always required a never ending stream of elaborately concocted lies that, as many have experienced, results in a veritable mountain of guilt and shame that haunted every waking moment of my life. That is until I discovered alcohol... I easily bought into the ultimate deception that the antidote for this poisoned way of thinking was to swallow more of the same delusional poison that had overwhelmed me in the first place, the inevitable result, insanity...
Self obsession was the fuel that ultimately propelled my total rejection of the person of God and His gloriously simple plan for continuous communion and the overwhelming joy and peace that follows. Alcohol became my principal source of courage, refuge and yes - my principle "god" ( for I had many others). Yet, in His perfect provision, the very substance that compelled me to waste what little was left of my life became the very propellent that ultimately initiated the desperate cry to the very Person whom I had rejected and Who's principles l had grown to despise.
In one spontaneous plea for deliverance, birthed from the belly of my soul, hopelessness became hope, gilt dissolved in mercy and shame was swallowed by the love and acceptance of the one true and Living Father of Light. My testimony is now inextricably joined together with the founders who had come to believe that the love and forgiveness of God transcends every sinful act mankind has ever committed, and that this same Author and Finisher provides Himself... as the simple yet complete plan, propitiation and power the very instant anyone humbles themselves and musters the mere willingness to believe. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2: 8-9). To anyone who has ears to hear be of good cheer! For He stands at the doorway of your heart right now - and knocks with love and compassion beyond telling. His one desire is to come into your heart and bring you peace, and provide His eternal comfort forever and ever. Amen...
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic humility is the key that unlocks the door to the grace of God...Thank you...Armand
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