Nothing Can Separate us From His Light or His Love

It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die. (AA, pg 66)

Many of the people whom I ran into in AA meetings turned out to be some of the most bitter people I had ever met. They could not drink anymore, but their lives had not turned out for the better.

To this day, I have still struggled with the upset and unrest in my life. Unbelievable yet true, people still had the power to dominate people like me. I found that my feelings were still easily hurt. The AA program teaches members that they have to something about their resentments and fears, or else they will drink again.

For me, I found that the more I tried to do something about my resentments, the more resentful I became. More and more, the people I encountered in my life could set me off so easily.

I am now convinced that the reason why I was so skittish, so easily upset is that I had fallen for the lie written on page 66, that our feelings, our unrest somehow cuts us off from the "sunlight of the Spirit."

God is Light (1 John 1:5), and Jesus Christ is the Light of the World (John 8: 12).

Jesus declared that He was the Light of the world the moment that he refuted the shame of the Pharisees and rescued the woman caught in the act of adultery.

"Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more" (John 8: 11).

When we receive this gift of no condemnation, the gift of righteousness (Romans 5: 17) of no shame or judgment from Jesus Christ, then we walk in the Light.

John writes he blessed goodness that falls upon every believer in the Light of God:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

If walk in the Light, in Him, then every believer has fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses (that's right, present tense, right now!) us from all sin.

In other words, my resentments, my fears, any upsets in my life cannot separate me from the sunlight of the Spirit. Instead of spending all our time looking at our thoughts and feelings, let us rest instead in the righteousness that Christ has made us through His death and resurrection

Paul explains this glorious promise:

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 37-39)

Nothing, nothing, nothing at all can separate us from His love, and to be full of God's love is to be full of God:

"17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3: 17-19)

The greater our revelation of God's love for us, forever assigned to us by Jesus' death on the Cross and resurrection to the right hand of God the Father (1 John 4: 10)., the greater His life will work in us to do all that He wills for us to do:

"1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;" (Ephesians 4: 1-2)

We walk worthy of this calling in love -- not our love, but God's love.

John explains this the most simply:

"We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4: 19)

Nothing we do, say, or think can separate us from God, for we are now in Christ, made sons of God by His Son (1 John 3: 1-3)

AA teaches members that they have to watch out for bad feelings and then do good things. The Word of God teaches us to abide in God's love (John 15: 9), and that His love then empowers us to do good.

It could not be simpler. Forget the Twelve Steps -- believe on Him whom the Father has sent (John 6: 29), and as Christ Jesus lives through you, you will reign in this live, more than conquerors over every hurt, habit, hanging, and hankering of the flesh.