Rest, Not Resentment or Retaliation

All of our need for vengeance has been exhausted, at the Cross.

Jesus Christ paid for all of it.

For so long, I kept thinking that I had to "do something" about the unrest, the resentments, and the wrestlings that I had to contend with in my life.

I am now convinced that this spirit of retaliation, this need for someone to  "pay for it" started and ended with AA.

This terrible cult tells people that they have to take their inventories, that they have to watch themselves, to make sure that they do not do anything wrong.

At the end of the day, they have to make an itemized account of what they did wrong, and what they did right:

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

"Constructively review" -- what is constructive about looking at our faults and failures for the day?

How many of you would like to look at yourself and comb over every failure?

For those of us who want to claim "progress", when does the self-searching step? It never does, it never will, because the sense of "sin" and of "wrongdoing" in our lives will never go away, unless we choose to rest in the Finished Work of Jesus Christ.

No wonder most people quit AA or die in the process of trying to "work the program". Imagine waking up to a life of "taking your inventory" and "working the steps", and then you attend meetings where other self-righteous, self-pitying types show up and spew about their frustrated, empty lives.

Resentment and retaliation are both borne of trying to earn one's standing before God every day, a standard which no one can meet, for the sin conscience of man cannot be perfected with our "right deeds" or our confessions.

While AA tells us to run through our wrongdoings every day, Jesus invites us to rest in His Finished Work, that in Christ all our sins are forgiven, and not only that, He takes us from dead in our trespasses to alive and reigning in heavenly places in Him!

This love is beyond our understanding. We must take God at His Word, or reject it altogether.