Recovery Christian Center Daily Meditation - 4/19/12 - Faith in the Gift
"Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners." Romans 4:1-5 NLT
Some recovering folk have trouble with accepting the concept that salvation and recovery are freely given gifts and not earned. We, because of the depth of pain and suffering in our past, believe we are unworthy of God, or to be given anything. We think that we must somehow earn our recovery, salvation and our relationship with God. The problem with that thinking is that we're trying to earn something that can't be earned. If it could be earned there would have been no need for Christ's sacrifice.
It's the same with our recovery, if that could be earned then we wouldn't have needed God's help. The steps aren't a process of earning our recovery. They are an act of faith and deeper surrender to God. We can never earn what has been freely given to us. The life we live after the gift is one of serve because we are grateful for the gift not because we are trying to earn it. In fact if we are truly honest with ourselves if it were not for God's grace and mercy we would have been given what we had truly earned, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual death, and not the unmerited favor of salvation and recovery.
"Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners." Romans 4:1-5 NLT
Some recovering folk have trouble with accepting the concept that salvation and recovery are freely given gifts and not earned. We, because of the depth of pain and suffering in our past, believe we are unworthy of God, or to be given anything. We think that we must somehow earn our recovery, salvation and our relationship with God. The problem with that thinking is that we're trying to earn something that can't be earned. If it could be earned there would have been no need for Christ's sacrifice.
It's the same with our recovery, if that could be earned then we wouldn't have needed God's help. The steps aren't a process of earning our recovery. They are an act of faith and deeper surrender to God. We can never earn what has been freely given to us. The life we live after the gift is one of serve because we are grateful for the gift not because we are trying to earn it. In fact if we are truly honest with ourselves if it were not for God's grace and mercy we would have been given what we had truly earned, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual death, and not the unmerited favor of salvation and recovery.
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