Jesus, Greater Than Any Higher Power

The issue of  our conception of God versus the true revelation of God has taken greater turns in my life up to now.

I lived in fear every day that I was in trouble, or that one day I would be punished for sins that I had committed.

Now, I knew in my heart and in my head that I was forgiven all my sins.

Yet the lingering fear about tomorrow, about the chance hardships I might face, never went away.

I had read so many times: "Perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18)

This perfect love is not our love for God, but God's love for us.

This love is not revealed to us merely in powerful sentiments, but in a growing recognition of His grace and our knowledge of how great, and how gracious, He is.

If we stop with our conception of God, then we go nowhere.

Even though the Twelve Step cult provides the Eleventh Step, so that we meditate on "God" and increase our conscious contact with God, such circular thinking is ultimately poisonous.

We started with our own conception rather than a full and growing revelation of God. What gives anyone the impression that our concept of God is going to change, when all we have been operating from has been what were thinking already?

The challenges and circumstances we face in this life are too great, and the opportunities are beyond our calculation.

Imagine stepping into a world, where you have no idea whether He is on your side or not. Imagine waking up every day, not sure if you want to do anything beyond what you have already and always been doing, simply because you could never know for sure if you were doing the right thing or the wrong thing, or if God would be there for you or not.

Such was the frustrating dilemma of my life. Such hardships within my mind, and perhaps the minds of many people who have been pushed and shoved around in the AA cult.

Jesus is greater than any higher power. He cannot be conceived, but received, and in growing measure throughout every day.

We grow in grace and knowledge of Him, of Himself, as we read the Word of God. While AA talks about meditation, there is no serious discussion about what to meditate on.

Do we meditate on our own empty ideas of  God? That kind of thinking will bring us right back to ourselves. When we rest only in ourselves, we have nothing but a chronic tension, or a fearful looking after of judgment (Hebrews 10:26)

Today, I am learning that the God who made this universe cares about me beyond everything in this earth, enough that He gave His own Son for me, and that through His Son I am dead to sin, to every hollow rudiment of this earth, and I can reign in life through Him (Romans 5: 17)

This wonder of God's grace and goodness cannot be conceived from within, but must be received and believed.