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.
Written by Armand
Praying for someone on my resentment list challenges the defiance that can still exist in my fear-based human nature. I must attempt to utilize some form of humility in order to get beyond that limitation. Thus, I am concurrently addressing both a diminishing character defect and an expanding character asset. I believe this is a recovery-found tool available to me in order to achieve the peace of mind that comes by integrating all Twelve Steps into my life. The simple act of prayer is a relief to the burden of self that piled on me through self-centered defiance and consequent resentment. Prayer is giving myself to you and, in the process, relieving myself of me.
ReplyDeleteMichael praying for someone we are not "fond" of changes our attitude towards them followed by more loving behavior...Thank you...Armand
ReplyDeleteArmand,
ReplyDeleteIn AA we close the meetings in a very special way. Lets continue to contemplate the "The Lords Prayer," specifically, how many times our hearts have stumbled over those words “ Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others" and the glorious freedom contained deep within for all of us 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 Lord God, today I want to pray for all those You have placed on my heart who have harmed me and are still in the icy claws of guilt and shame over 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 and forgive just as You have loved and forgiven 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. Lord, please heal those memories that act as a barrier to Your grace. 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 to make amends to them and forgive them for any imagined slight I may have used to justify my former selfish attitudes and actions . 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.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic forgiveness is powerful whether given or received...Thank you>>>Armand
ReplyDeleteForgiveness is freeing, anger keeps me cold and stuck. I must pray and find a willingness to forgive myself and another. It is in forgiving that I receive...my heart is full, I have an open-heart and have been able to let go of resentment, I kept refilling things I couldn't change and justified anger did not work for me.
ReplyDeleteI have a daily reprieve, I pray for others who are perhaps spiritually sick and remember to have patience, compassion and for God to take the anger. In the absence of anger,I have space to heal, forgive and love.
I remember the passage in a vision for you as I write...
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of happy destiny.
May God bless you and keep you until then.
Jessica has left a new comment on your post "The Resentment Prayer":
ReplyDeleteForgiveness is freeing, anger keeps me cold and stuck. I must pray and find a willingness to forgive myself and another. It is in forgiving that I receive...my heart is full, I have an open-heart and have been able to let go of resentment, I kept refilling things I couldn't change and justified anger did not work for me.
I have a daily reprieve, I pray for others who are perhaps spiritually sick and remember to have patience, compassion and for God to take the anger. In the absence of anger,I have space to heal, forgive and love.
I remember the passage in a vision for you as I write...
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of happy destiny.
May God bless you and keep you until then.
Jessica the forgiveness we receive is directly related to the forgiveness we give...Thank you...Armand
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