Stop Watching Out, Start Looking Up

This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (AA, pg 84)

This little passage follows after the Promises.

The promises which we have to work for.

In the previous post, I outlined that no one can claim a promise if he has to work for it.

The promise of life everlasting, and every good and perfect gift, comes from above, from God the Father (James 1: 17)

We receive every good thing through Jesus (Romans 8: 32)

Yet the Twelve Step program tells us to watch out for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear.

Let's take each one of these defects one at a time, and allow the full truth of Scripture give us the real solution, all found in a growing revelation of Jesus.

Selfishness:

What is selfishness other than an ongoing bankruptcy that the things we need must be met through our efforts?

Paul cuts through this fear right away in his Epistle to the Ephesians:

"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)

We have been blessed with every blessing, all of which are spiritual in origin, and we have been made accepted in the Beloved, Jesus!

In fact, because of what He did for us on the Cross, the full proof of God's love for us, we can then declare:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

The proper translation reads "Herein is love perfected among us." This love is God's love for us, from beginning to end, not ours for God.

Dishonesty:

First of all, the truth sets us free (John 8: 32). Why would anyone want to live in bondage?

Why would anyone lie? Because we fear losing something, or we have fear in general.

The antidote is the love of God (not love for God):

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."  (1 John 4: 18)

This perfect love speaks of everything done for us in Christ Jesus, for He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, He has seated us in heavenly places in Himself (Ephesians 2: 6)

Because we identify with the Perfect Man Jesus, then we have a new reason for the truth:

"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

25Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." (Ephesians 4: 24-25)

 

We speak the truth because we are all part of one Body in Christ.

 

Resentment:

 

This new truth has conveyed so much to me. Since as Christ is, so are we in this world, we must reckon ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6: 11-12), and that includes outbursts of anger, or sudden surges of frustration and resentment.

 

These outrages, these upsets, these emotional turmoils are not us. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 17), and because we have a new standing, and thus no longer identify with Adam, we allow His Holy Spirit to transform us from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3: 18)

 

Paul writes to this wonderful transformation more specifically in Ephesians:

 

"31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4: 31-32)

 

The more that we see how gracious God is, the more that bitterness, wrath anger (in other words, resentment) will be taken away from us.

 

How gracious is He? Check out Romans 5: 17:

 

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17)

 

Young's Literal Translation brings out the fullness of this grace more explicitly:

 

"for if by the offence of the one the death did reign through the one, much more those, who the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness are receiving, in life shall reign through the one -- Jesus Christ."

 

We are called to keep receiving this grace!

 

Another verse brings out the constant flow of God's grace in our lives:

 

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:" (2 Corinthians 9: 8)

 

Youngs writes:

 

"and God is able all grace to cause to abound to you, that in every thing always all sufficiency having, ye may abound to every good work,"

 

The best translation offers:

 

"God is causing right now all grace to abound to you."

 

Let us also keep in mind that God is constantly at work in us, both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2: 12-13)

 

We do not identify with upsets, resentments, and all the other negative emotions in our lives, because they are residue of the old man Adam, from whom we have been delivered.

 

Fear:

 

Once again, God's perfect love for us casts out every fear, banishes it, turns it out of doors. His love cannot coexist with fear, because fear speaks of a Spirit which does not belong to us, anyway:

 

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)

 

and

 

"7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1: 7)

 

So, whatever the issue in our lives, we should stop watching out for these terrible feelings and thoughts, but rather look up to our new identity, and reckon ourselves alive in Christ:

 

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4)