Addict, Part 4: RECONCILIATION
Who have I hurt? As hard as it is to ask this question, our recovery hinges on our willingness to not only confess our character defects but to seek reconciliation. Steps 8 & 9 put flesh on our pain and move us to go make amends. We now put action to our claimed change in behavior.
Matthew 5:21-24 (from www.biblegateway.com)
21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’[c] 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone,[d] you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot,[e] you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone,[f] you are in danger of the fires of hell.[g]
23 “So if you are presenting a sacrifice[h] at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, 24 leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
Key Definitions & Ideas
Addicted to ME: Compulsive disowning of God so I can be my own god
Step 1 We admitted we were powerless over our addiction that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Step 4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5 Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
Step 7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8 Made a list of persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Step 9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Step 10 Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Step 11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Step 12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs
The Hard Work:
(1) Half-measures avail us nothing. Complete abandon lays the foundation for reconciliation.
(2) There is no amends without a change in behavior. I can’t change them. I only give God full access to change me.
Audio from Sunday, August 6 Message “Addict, Part 4: RECONCILIATION”
Click below to listen