Resentment: That We Have to Do Everything

I think that I am starting to get the information that I have longed for yet have not been able to find about conflicts, confrontation, and assertiveness which so many people seem to lack.

AA teaches its members that they have to be free from anger.

The Bible teaches something different about anger:

"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Ephesians 4: 26)

There is a time and place for getting angry, for facing up to provocation or perversion in our lives.

But for people in AA, what I experienced and what I saw, people were getting angry all the time, and the Steps did not work.

The Twelve Steps do not outline the peace and the righteousness that people really need to succeed or grow in our lives. They do not give people the Truth on which to stand, which gives man the power to know the different between good and evil.

In fact, the writer in the Book of Hebrews teaches us that we need to skilled in righteousness, that before God we are forever justified, and then we can rightly discern good and evil.

Yet another element needs discussion -- that we are not alone in this world, nor do we have to wonder whether God is on our side or not.

This righteousness has nothing to do with how we feel, but everything to do with what He has done for us at the Cross:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

People who do not rest in a sense of righteousness, who are not receiving the unmerited favor of God no matter how they feel or what they think, find themselves looking at themselves too much of the time. And all of that self-focus makes us sensitive, makes us easily hurt, as well.

I cannot share this revelation enough. For the longest time, I have been convinced that my joy, my peace, my well-being had to do with me, my thoughts, and everything that I said and did.

In truth, it has everything to do with Himself and His Kingdom:

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)

The righteousness is a gift (Romans 5: 17), the Peace is a Person (Ephesians 2: 14), and joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 2: 22). These things we receive by grace through faith.

It is amazing to me how little I knew about my standing before God, or worse I did not care, as if my identity in Christ meant nothing. Yet the greater our knowledge of God and His Son and all that He is doing for us, the greater the Life that we receive from Him!

Resentment comes down to the false belief, in many cases, that how I feel makes or breaks what I take from God the Father. In truth, there is nothing that can separate me from God, not one thing (Romans 8; 38-39) but my feelings were getting in the way all too often.

Now I am learning even more -- my feelings, that speaks of focusing on me instead of focusing on Him who has prepared all things for me, including the works that He wants me to do  (Ephesians 2: 10) and the Reward of Rest and Righteousness (Hebrews 4: 11)