Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God
Psalm 3:1-6 (ESV)
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
3:1
O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
3:2
many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah
3:3
But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
3:4
I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
3:5
I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
3:6
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me
all around.
12Step.org Comments:
When we are setting our face towards finding the Truth about a Higher Power who can restore us to sanity, and as we turn more and more to the God that we find in that search, then sometimes it may seem that things can get difficult. It might seem that those who would want to entice us back into our addictive habits are "many" that would "rise up against me". Just by selling what they are selling or doing what they are doing these people, businesses or organizations can be sources of temptation for us, whether it be alcohol, pornography, easy credit, gambling, prescription or illegal drugs, or whatever our area of temptation or those of our loved ones might be. We can realize, though, that it has always been so. There have always been those in every age who aim to bring down the righteous, to destroy righteousness in their own lives and the lives of others. In this Psalm, David was to some extent reaping what he sowed because of his sin with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband Uriah. The prophet Nathan predicted that trouble would not leave David's house because of this sin. In a similar way, we are reaping from the sin in our lives. And yet, David knew that in spite of his sin God still loved him and wanted the best for him. David turned to God as his shield and found rest and sustenance in God's protection. We, too, can turn to God and in His mercy we can find rest, sustenance and deliverance from the evil and temptations around us. We no longer have to be afraid of the "ten thousands of people" that may be in the businesses, organizations or in unhealthy belief systems that can be sources of temptation for us. We have found our protection, our rest and our peace in God.
Psalm 142:1-7 (ESV)
A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
142:1
With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
142:2
I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him.
142:3
When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have
hidden a trap for me.
142:4
Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains
to me; no one cares for
my soul.
142:5
I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the
living."
142:6
Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for
they are too strong for me!
142:7
Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will
surround me, for you will
deal bountifully with me.
12Step.org Comments:
This is a cry, a plea for help from God, from the LORD who is the only one who can truly deliver.It is a cry from when "my spirit is overwhelmed within me". It is a cry when "there was no man that would acknowledge me". It is a cry when "no man cared for my soul". It is a cry to bring "my soul out of prison". And the hope and belief of David in this psalm is that the LORD will be "my refuge and my portion in the land of the living." The LORD will "deliver me from my persecutors". The LORD will "deal bountifully with me." We have the benefit of being able to look back in time and see that the LORD did indeed fulfill all of these pleas of David. We have the advantage of time also in that in this age God has given us the way of the cross, of redemption through Christ Jesus. In the situation of our recovery, our enemies are the addictions that we have allowed or brought into our lives. The power behind these addictions is also crafty, having "secretly laid a snare" for us. In our addiction, we usually come to the point where "no man cared for my soul" and our soul is in the prison of our addictive behaviors. We can have confidence that when we cry to the LORD in sincerity and honesty for deliverance through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, that the LORD will "deal bountifully" with us as well.
Matthew 4:18-23 (ESV)
4:18
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called
Peter) and Andrew his
brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
4:19
And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
4:20
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
4:21
And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John
his brother, in the
boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.
4:22
Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
4:23
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the
gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
12Step.org Comments:
Peter, Andrew, James and John all followed Jesus when He called them from their regular tasks. They obviously sensed in some manner that this was a call from a Higher Power, from their God. So they turned over their lives to God, leaving behind the familiar so that they could know and experience the true life that comes from following the true God.
Matthew 6:24-34 (ESV)
6:24
"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
6:25
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what
you will drink, nor
about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothing?
6:26
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and
yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
6:27
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
6:28
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow: they neither toil
nor spin,
6:29
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
6:30
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
6:31
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?'
or 'What shall we wear?'
6:32
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that
you need them all.
6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be added to you.
6:34
"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for
itself. Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble.
12Step.org Comments:
Here Christ Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we need to put God first and foremost in our lives, above the pursuit of money (mammon) or any other earthly concern..And having done that, then we can trust God in faith to take care of all of our day to day needs. We just need to trust and obey Him," turning our lives over to God as we understand God" so far in our walk of living in the Truth.
Luke 9:59-62 (ESV)
9:59
To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my
father."
9:60
And Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go
and proclaim the kingdom
of God."
9:61
Yet another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those
at my home."
9:62
Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for
the kingdom of God."
12Step.org Comments:
Here in Luke's Gospel we see Jesus telling His followers that following Him requires great commitment. It requires following Him above and beyond what we might have thought was valuable before we began following Him.
John 1:12-13 (ESV) John 1:12-13
1:12
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God,
1:13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but
of God.
12Step.org Comments:
In this passage we find that through believing "on his name", that is the name of Jesus, we are re-born as a child of God. This re-birth is not from a willing of man or of birth, but it is through the power and grace of God through Christ Jesus. If we have found Jesus Christ to be our Higher Power, then by this belief in Him we are re-born as God's child by God's grace. God in Christ Jesus then provides the power that can lead us away from the insanity of our addictive behaviors.
