An expound of how Steps Three and Seven lead to direct contact with Christ, through the act of conversion, thereby relieving the sufferer of alcoholism, and illustrating how most in the modern fellowship do not recover from this seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.
It is "seemingly" hopeless, because those sufferers do not have sufficient power in their lives, let alone in their program. The significant reason for our spiritual malady is the shortcoming that is not understood within the rooms: fear.
In Step Three, we pray to be freed from the bondage of self. In Step Seven, we pray for the removal of what cuts us off from the Sunlight of the Spirit. We know that selfishness is the root of our problems, but fail to recognize that selfishness is in actuality the fear that leads to the sins which are called "character defects". Our alcoholism, a symptom, is a linear chain of events, starting from infancy, maturing into a fatal mental illness which ultimately will take the spiritual member to the very gates of hell, and where only the honest alcoholic who is willing to have a conversion experience may evade.
We begin with our shortcomings, which is the selfish phenomenon of fear, which then increases into the acting out byway of character defects, which are our sins: pride, greed, envy, lust, gluttony, anger, and sloth, and eventually manifests into active alcoholism.
We can extrapolate, then, that bondage of self is actually anxiety that results from self-absorption: the fear of losing something that we have, or not getting what we need and/or want. When we genuinely pray to be healed, we are calling upon God to relieve us of our fear. If we are given the grace, God will lead us to his Son, who repeatedly promised in the Bible that he was to give us rest from worry.
In order to combat alcoholism and addiction, we must replace the circumstance that leads to the first drink. We must replace fear (selfishness) with faith (trust in God). We must die so that we may be reborn; this is the crux of not only the third and seventh steps, but of the program of recovery as a whole. For Christ is all, and abandonment through prayer is the only Way out.
To be saved is not to recite, but to believe; not to be willing, but to complete; not to speak, but to connect; and not to participate, but to sacrifice. It is then and only then, that we become as open to conviction as the dying can be. The twenty-first century program does not have recovery, because it does not have Christ. The ruined do not have the courage to face their deaths, and this is why so few are now reborn.
To be saved is not to recite, but to believe; not to be willing, but to complete; not to speak, but to connect; and not to participate, but to sacrifice. It is then and only then, that we become as open to conviction as the dying can be. The twenty-first century program does not have recovery, because it does not have Christ. The ruined do not have the courage to face their deaths, and this is why so few are now reborn.
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