In the Third Step we made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. The Fourth Step is the next step in the process, the purpose of which is to find out what it is about me that is keeping the grace of God from my life. It is through the grace of God that the healing occurs. Many spiritual traditions include a deep and thorough look at the past to discover the truth of what is uncovered. Alcoholics Anonymous is no different.As we work through the Fourth Step we may get the sense that the completed program of Alcoholics Anonymous will allow us, possibly for the first time, to be living our lives as God originally intended us to - free of the manifestation in our behavior of resentment, fear and anxiety. We will then become the human beings God created us to be and we will maximize our human potential, as the manifestation of our human nature is perfected in the will of God.
Written By Armand
One of Bill Wilson's contemporaries, Harry Emerson Fosdick is credited with stating that "self-confrontation is the beginning of a meaningful life." Until I am willing to look at myself, I will see nothing. I will live in denial. Fear will say "dare not pass this way and pride will say do not look." It took innermost pain to bring me to my knees where I finally begged for help. That help came in the presence of my first AA meeting; it has continued from that day to this day. In Step Four, I learned that looking and seeing were part of a spiritual process cultivated to make me whole. But that would occur only by integrating all Twelve Steps into my life in such a way that they would become my life. The taproot to the spring of the grace that would follow was located in Step Four. It's purpose was to take my life from meaningless to meaningful. A life I experience each day through the presence of The Power Within me. After all, there was really nothing to fear but fear itself.
ReplyDeleteMichael an opportunity to reveal to ourselves who and what we really are...Thank you...Armand
DeleteSteps 3 through 7 are so dynamically intertwined it's hard for me to spiritually separate them. In Step 3, I made a decision. In Step 4, I begin to act upon it. The subject of the inventory was to seek out the location of my moral compass and the direction the needle points. If I am fearless, I'll admit it's been buried in the belly of the beast for a long time. A very, very long time... And like all things buried it had to be exposed. My entire being was caked with the mud of a misspent life. It was beyond my ability to restore. A miracle was called for. In Step 5, I prayerfully surrendered it to the Master who gracefully placed my heart in His as He placed His heart in mine. In Step 6, I realized that without constantly seeking out His grace and power I was unable to will away my own will. In Step 7, I asked Him to empower and relieve me of my shortcomings and sinful nature by His Holy Spirit who had taken residence in my heart. There I reside to this day, surrounded and protected by His loving hands.
ReplyDeleteA Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic it is time to do the unthinkable. fearlessly face ourselves in the presence of God...Thank you...Armand
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