When I learned about putting aside the negative feelings and hurts, I thought that this life was about chronically pushing against bad thoughts and feelings.
If I was feeling fearful, I then responded with doing something about the feelings, whether that movement entailed telling someone about how I felt or writing out a set of steps, or doing something.
Sometimes, I would eat. I now understand why people reach for food, alcohol, or other comfort measures. Individuals needs to do something with the stress of being God in their own lives, if they do not believe that He is taking care of them.
No matter what the AA book may claim about letting go and letting God, there really is no letting go as long as a member has to keep taking his inventory, fearing that he may be cut off from God for any reason.
The Bible is very clear -- "I will NEVER (double negative, emphatic) leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13: 5)
The same iron clad certainty is found in Romans 8: 1: There is now therefore no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Period. (The part about "walk after the spirit, not the flesh" is not in the original Greek).
We need to believe the truth of God's Word, and rest in the Truth that in Christ, the Work is Finished, and that He is alive, working in us and through us (Philippians 2: 12-13)
The problem for all of us is that we are holding onto what other people tell us, not what God has told us.
We are believing what men and women have shared, but not what the Bible reveals: Jesus.
Let us look again at the banner verse:
"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 verse could not be clearer: "As He is", not "As He was". Jesus is no longer on the earth as a prophet coming to fulfill the law, while bringing down the traditions of the elder Pharisees, and bringing the fullness of the law to their attention.
He is now our High Priest forever, and He will come again as our King.
This is the truth.
Yet for the longest time, I was holding onto the fears and lack of faith of other people. I had read and received the testimony of God's Word time and again. Yet at the same time, I was holding in my mind the fears, worries, and old ideas of other people.
Those old ideas include Alcoholics Anonymous, another man-centered cult dedicated to making the most of man, and acting as if the problem of sin does not exist, that if we try harder working Twelve Steps, then everything will work out.
We need life, and in Christ Jesus, we have life, and that more abundantly.
There is indeed nothing wrong with the Word, there is nothing wrong with God, and because Jesus became sin, and is our propitiation forever more, we can come boldly before God our Daddy, because of His Son Jesus!
We can rest assured in all that Jesus has promised for us. When I sense frustration or fear, I now rest in the truth of God's grace, and recognize that those fears and tumults are lies.
Instead of trying to explain away the frustration, fear, or anxiety, I rest in the truth of His love, the Cross, and all that He accomplished there.
That recognition of His perfect love casts out all fear.
WOW!
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