Our Enemy, the thief,
comes for no other reason but to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus
came that we might have life in all its fullness (John 10:10). The
enemy uses circumstances, the wrong things others do to us, and the
poor choices we make to accomplish his goals. The abundant life
comes, as we increasingly learn deal in faith with what life
throws as us, and with His help deal with the issues in our
lives. Twelve-step programs are designed to help us to see the
patterns of behaviour that are tripping us up. It might be the way
that we respond when things don’t go our way. Perhaps we get mad
and do things that come back to bite us. Perhaps relationships don’t
work, but of course the next one will be different. Perhaps we get
dissatisfied with a job months or even weeks after we start and we
“have” to quit.
And of course there is
always a reason, it’s always someone else’s fault. If only this
person was kinder, or would stop doing that. If only people were not
jerks! Life is not working, but it never occurs to us that we might
be part of the problem. I mean if you are looking for blame, the
Enemy will help you find a thousand. And round and round we go,
and then wonder why things never change. If this is you, and it's all
of us at one time or another, then the Scriptures have some advice
“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the
LORD” (Lamentations 3:40). Perhaps “insanity” is too strong a
way to put it, but how else do you describe the unexamined life
that trips us up over, and over again?
C.S. Lewis said “God
whispers to us in our pleasure, but shouts to us in our pain.” So
many of us had to come to the end of ourselves, to reach our bottom,
before we cried out to the Lord for help. But we also need to
realize that no matter where we are, there's always more (1
Corinthians 2:8), and that we get there by pressing in. And since we
don’t know what we don’t know, or sometimes we don’t want to
know, the solution, at least for me, is to cry out “Search me, O
God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: See if there is
any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”
(Psalm 139:24). Most of us in twelve-step programs have come to the
place where we have tried over and over to fix things ourselves, only
to finally arrive at the place where we can admit we need help. And
when we come to Him, to Jesus as our higher power, we find help for
both our often wrong desires, and in the wherewithal to do what needs
to be done (Philippians 2:13).
Father, until we fully
come to You (half measures profited us nothing), we don’t see the
insanity in doubling down on what has not worked, trying harder and
harder, and getting nowhere. Thank You Lord that You did indeed
shout to me in my pain, and that I became desperate enough to “taste
and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Indeed You are good
Lord, and Your ways are the ways of truth and life and health. So
Lord search me again this morning, so that I may draw even closer to
You, in Jesus Name Amen
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