Any journey to recovery begins with an acceptance that without God's wisdom, strength and love, that we have no chance. Let go and let God...He will show us the path and He will give us the strength to walk it! Don't worry anymore, beleive in Him, and get better!

Letting go and Letting God…we hear it all the time, but few of us really live our lives this way, and the truth is that while using, none of us do.

For recovery though, it's fundamental. Letting go and letting God is grace and humility personified, and it's only through this trust in Christ that we have a chance.

The first two steps of the Christian 12 steps could just as well be renamed letting go and letting God. We need to realize that there are some things in this life that we can’t handle on our own and that we need to trust in God - to know that although we are imperfect and weak - He is perfect and strong; and with his grace, there is nothing that we cannot do.

Letting go and letting God is a liberating and beautiful experience. Understanding that although we do not yet know how we are going to get better, how we are going to stop drinking or drugging….that God does.

Understanding that we can’t stop (we've proven this incredibly well already) but that God, God can do it for us, and that He wants to if we'll only just let Him in!

Forget about worry! Understand that it's not up to you to come up with the answers here…you just have to listen for the solutions that He will provide. If you worry about how you'll do it or how you'll have the strength to stay sober, you've got things completely backwards! You don’t have the strength or the knowledge, and by worrying about how YOU will do it, you've missed the point…you won’t, God will.

Understanding and believing this feels great. It doesn’t mean that you are not going to have to work at your recovery, but it does mean that you don’t have to worry about it. Just put your trust in the Lord, listen to His message, and feel His strength as he shows you the path.

Steps 1&2: Let Go and Let God!

It's very fitting that the first 2 steps of the Christian 12 steps are about letting go and letting God, and if you can’t get these right, none of the following steps are going to offer you much.

So say to yourself:

"I can’t do this on my own, but I believe that God will show me the path. Through God's grace I will discover what I need to move past this, and He will give me the strength to walk this journey!"

Feel better; it's not up to you anymore! Let go and let God. Pray for His wisdom, love and strength. Soon you will find the answers you seek. He will give you the strength and courage you need. Soon you will be past this.

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Get Out of Your Own Way addresses how we stand in our own way of moving forward in life. We get in our own way with our negative thoughts, procrastination, fear, and doubt, etc. We can move forward by trusting that God can and will get us through the storms of life.

In the game of life it may seem as if we are dealt a bad hand and have to play it the best way we can. Often, we lose while the winner takes all. We may blame the dealer for dealing us such a bad hand. But, is it really the dealer’s fault or our own fault? Did we make some bad plays, not paying attention, or not knowing what we were doing? Do we accuse other players of cheating instead of accepting the fact that we just lost? Something about the way the game was played just doesn't seem right. It just isn’t fair. Well life isn’t fair. We want to win the game but we continue to lose no matter how hard we try. How do we handle it?

Listen to God

What do you do when you get looked over on the job and the promotion goes to someone else? What do you do when you have to choose between buying food or medication? No matter how hard you study you still don't get an A on the test. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Maybe we have to talk to God and ask, “What is going on?” or “I just don’t understand because this is not what I had in mind for my life.” Talk to God and listen to what He has to say.

The book of Habakkuk is like a question and answer session between the prophet and God.¹ Specifically, Habakkuk complained that Judah was full of injustice and crime. God’s response was that he was going to have the Babylonians punish the people of Judah. Then Habakkuk complained that this would be unfair, because the Babylonians were even worse than the people of Judah. God then told Habakkuk that the Babylonians would be punished later.

While Habakkuk continued to asked questions, God never turned him away. God also told Habakkuk to write the vision and keep the faith because the just live by faith. So, while going through trials, tribulation, and temptations keep your focus on God. In spite of what is happening in the world, keep the faith. Even when folks aren’t doing the right things, keep the faith and leave vengeance to the Lord. Seek direction, guidance, and comfort from the Lord. Pray and listen to what God has to say. Get a notebook and write what God is telling you. If God tells you to go to school or launch a business, write it down. It will help you stay focused and keep you encouraged.

Don't Block Your Blessings

Don’t block your blessings or get in your own way by allowing fear, anger, procrastination, stubbornness, or any other negative thought or behavior to get in the way. Don’t get weary when the vision doesn’t come fast enough. It may take a long time, but keep on waiting and it will happen. Step out on faith and do something great. Write that book, go to school, start your business, or start writing blogs. You can do it. Strive for greatness, do something different, and stand out. Get out of your own way!

Be encouraged!

Arlinda D. Lindsay

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Bringing Them Back to Christ

Few people suffer further from God's love than those suffering an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Whether or not an addict professes faith, the cold realities of addiction and craving force the addict to worship drugs or alcohol above all else, even God.

There is little that God can do, for those that close their hearts to Him (regardless of what they profess) cannot feel His healing power, and without His healing power, they cannot get better. A negative cycle, and for those enduring addiction, there can seem no way out from this darkness away from Christ.

Sometimes, oftentimes, those caught in this negative and faithless cycle are powerless to break free on their own, and sometimes, they need a strong and concerted push towards God.

Christian interventions work, they can get an addict to accept of a need for treatment and get them into a safe and sober place where they may once again connect with Christ, and find peace through Him.

In a Christian intervention, all close to the using addict or alcoholic gather together, in love and faith, to show the addict that although they love him or her, that the addiction is causing too much pain - That only through a reunion with Christ and a separation from intoxication, can things get better. Family and friends will gather with the addict to share stories of addiction related hurt, to demand that the addiction get recognized, and to demand change. A pastor or minister will often guide the proceedings

Christian interventions work, but they can be emotionally difficult, and they need to be run well – a rashly organized and fractured intervention can actually do more harm than good. It's very important that all involved act with unity and love for any chance of success. Anyone living with, or around, a still-using addict knows full well what little good nagging, screaming or crying does; and so a new approach is needed.

Remember, you're dealing with an addiction here, and an addiction lives inside like a demonic possession. It will try everything and anything to stay alive, and it is the cunning of addiction that makes addicts such master manipulators. An addiction will not relinquish its hold easily, and you cannot expect success unless you get educated, get help, and stay focused on the task at hand. Pray for strength and wisdom, seek outside council (a professional, or clergy) and use your God given resources to prepare fully for a successful intervention.

Is an Intervention a Judgment?

Contemplating an intervention can be scary. We get scared of failure, scared of making things worse, and scared even of confronting a loved one with often very painful and sometimes buried truths.

It can be thankless, there are no guarantees, and it will be tough. It is also a deeply holy and Christian act. An intervention is not a judgment in the biblical sense; it is an act of love and charity. A well run Christian intervention lights God's lamp, bringing glory to God through good works, and a spreading of faith.¹

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction."

2 Timothy 4:2

Family considers an intervention out of love and concern, and an intervention has nothing to do with the rash judgment Jesus preached against at the Sermon on the Mount. In a Christian intervention, you teach of a better way before God, you demand of it. You do not judge harshly for actions in the past – you speak of them, but speak with love, making your recount an act of love, and not of judgment.

The righteous must fight against evil, it is the Word, and untreated addiction is surely a form of evil.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son – Dealing With Hard Feelings

Addiction creates pain, always, and this pain ripples deep through the family. Addicts can do horrible things while high, or while desperate to get high, and family members often bear legitimate hurt, legitimate anger.

But remember the parable of the prodigal son, and remember that the father does not rebuke the son for wrong living on his return; in fact he celebrates his arrival with a feast.

When his other, dutiful son, asks why he feasts for his badly behaving son's return, he replies:

But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

Luke 15:32

An intervention is not quite a time for a celebration, but it's getting closer to that day. We must forgive so that we may celebrate a rebirth. We do not need forget, wounds may need healing in times to come, but through a family intervention (a family and Christian expression of love) we encourage a prodigal return, and soon we too may celebrate!

Put aside for now that you are owed an apology. Forgive, for now, the wrongs that have been done and work together for the greater good. You will be rewarded.

The Golden Rule

A reluctant participant can often come up with any number of reasons why an intervention should not occur, and these reasons can seem at times convincing, even righteous, but at the core - remember the golden rule.

If it were you suffering, your soul trapped far from Christ, an addiction motivating all of your actions, good and mostly bad – what would you want done?

Would you hope that your loved ones would leave you free to keep drinking or drugging, ignoring your spiritual despair? Would they be wrong to push you back on the path of goodness, out of real love and concern?

A Christian intervention is a real good work, and it can make a real big difference. It can be hard, but it's the right thing to do.

Learn all you can about doing it right. Get some help if you can (a professional or clergy) prepare for the event, and pray for strength and guidance. There is nothing greater in this world than bringing a lost soul back to Christ, and when we love this lost soul as family, the reward is doubly sweet.

The 12 steps of AA + The power of Christ = A powerful system of recovery

The Christian 12 steps

12 steps programs have been helping people overcome problems with addiction for nearly a century, and literally millions of people have achieved the salvation of sobriety by following these 12 honest steps of life improvement and honesty before God.

There is nothing easy about recovery from addiction, although with the assistance and love of Jesus Christ, a better life of service and happiness is always possible. All addicts who want to make a change will need to commit to an honest admission of defects, and take the steps necessary before God and man to better these faults of character, and live a happier life without the pain of substance abuse.

The Christian 12 steps movement obviously originates out of the root successes of the original 12 steps programs, but to better serve the needs of Christians in recovery, Christians have modified those 12 steps.

Praying to Jesus Christ

Praying to a higher power never made much sense to Christians in the program, and so in Christian recovery, not only do we pray to Jesus, but we also study the wisdom of the bible for strength and meaning, and we search our souls for ways we can live better lives in the image of God.

The Christian 12 steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and dysfunctional- behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that God, a Power greater than ourselves, could restore us to sanity and stability.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as revealed in the Bible.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as revealed in the Bible, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

By changing a few words, we magnify the power and the message

AA and other 12 steps organizations are intentionally spiritual but non denominational, nor affiliated with any particular God or Faith; and although this was done to maximize access in a very Christian and charitable way, in doing so the power of the message is somewhat diluted.

And simply by substituting a few words and by no longer praying to a higher power, but through praying to Jesus Christ, the power of the program is greatly intensified, and a Faith in God becomes a Faith in recovery.

Bible Study, Prayer, Christian Therapy

Of course a Christian rehab offers more than simply a few substituted words, and through group prayer, bible study and religious counseling; Christians can take strength and solace in the word of God as they work towards a better future of sobriety.

Christian rehab or recovery treats addiction as a fundamentally spiritual problem, requiring of a spiritual solution, and through Faith, prayer and a study of God's message, Christians are left with powerfully resonant tools against temptation and continuing abuse.

With the love of Jesus Christ and with the fellowship of other Christians, working the Christian 12 steps to recovery offers the Faithful far more than any conventional and secular rehab ever could.

AA has the big book, and it sure has helped a lot of people; but not so many as the Big Book used in a Christian rehab!

Through accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, and by submitting to His will, you will renew your relationship with God. You will find hold in the Christian community, and in the fellowship offered by this community.

You can't do it alone. Jesus can help you get better.

The Guidance of a Higher Power

The basic tenet of Christian addiction treatment is that recovery is not possible without submitting your heart and mind to the will and guidance of Jesus Christ; and that through an honest admission of your shortcomings, mistakes and weaknesses, Jesus Christ will give you the strength needed to overcome these weaknesses.

Addicts can feel very alone when dealing with the emotional lows of their problem, and by taking Jesus Christ into their heart, returning to the love of the Christian community, and through the fellowship and support of other Christians; recovery is possible.

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Humility means admitting to the Lord that you cannot get better without His help. It means not worrying about what others may say about your recovery, and it means the end of denial. Real humility before God is the first step to getting better.

All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted. Said Jesus.

To live a good Christian life, you must humble yourself before God. All of us must do this, and we must do this everyday. No matter how good we may be, how hard we may try to do right, we are imperfect, always, and only through honest admission of our imperfections before Christ, can we become exalted.

This core tenet of Christianity holds true for all, of course, but never is the need for humility more pertinent than for the person struggling with drug addiction or alcoholism. None of us while abusing drugs or alcohol can say we live true Christian lives, and all of us while abusing drugs or alcohol have more than our fair share of sins to confess to everyday.

But humility before Christ requires of us more than just an admission of our daily sins, it requires of us an admission that there are some things in our life that are beyond our control, and beyond our ability to make better.

As long as we continue to abuse drugs or alcohol, denying the extent of the problem and thinking that we can control our actions even when it's obvious to all that we cannot, we are not humble; we are arrogant and prideful. Whatever else we may do in our lives, this arrogance alone keeps us from a true relationship with Jesus, and it keeps us from feeling His healing power.

Arrogance and pride keeps us from admitting to the problem, fearful of what others will say about our weakness. This lust for worldly exaltation slams the door on exaltation before God, through humility.

And so, above all else, the first step to getting better for yourself and for God is to become humble. The first step is to admit honestly and completely to Christ what you have done, admit that you cannot change without His help, and pray for His guidance. Before you do this, whatever else you may do; recovery from addiction is impossible.

Once you say to Christ "I need your help Lord, I cannot do this on my own!" you begin a life-changing journey. It doesn't mean that you’re not going to have to work at it, and it doesn’t mean that your recovery is going to be easy; it's almost certainly going to be a bumpy road; but once you open your heart with humility to Christ; recovery is possible.

Arrogance fills us up, and we get so full of ourselves, that there's no room left for the Lord. Until we can live with humility, we refuse the Lord access to our lives. Until we can live with humility, we cannot get better.

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The Gospel of Mathew teaches us valuable recovery lessons, and reminds us that with a faith in the Lord, we have no need to worry about tomorrow!

Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Mathew 6:34

Jesus says this – Jesus says, in all things, live one day at a time - and for those of us in recovery, we'd better listen to Christ!

We get so panicked worrying about how we will stay sober tomorrow, next week, at the holidays, that we forget the preaching of Christ. Unbelievers worry about tomorrow, the faithful know that God will provide!

God knows what we need and He will provide, the Bible tells us so. Live righteously, believe in the Lord, and he will give you everything you need!

The cravings of addiction or alcoholism are temptations away from the Lord, and we must resist them. God will provide us with the strength we need to do so, today! If we believe in Him, pray to Him, and live by His word, He will grant us the strength to serve him.

What good is worry? You are powerless over your addiction, God is not. You cannot control yourself without His help today, or tomorrow. Do you believe in the Lord? Do you believe His Word? Let it go, trust in the Lord to provide answers for tomorrow, when tomorrow comes, He will!

We fool ourselves when we worry. Worry feels like an appropriate response to the gravity of our situation, it feels right – but it's wrong! Worry does no good; worry takes us far from the Lord. When we worry we do not put our faith in God. When we worry, we do not truly believe; and when we do not believe, God cannot help us. Worry, although it feels right sometimes, does nothing but harm.

Forget about tomorrow, live for the Lord today. Serve Him today – don’t drink or take drugs for today only, and tomorrow will sort itself out.

Find peace in the Word. God knows what you need. He tells us not to worry, that He will give us everything we need. Have faith today, and everyday – one day at a time!

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Faith based Christian recovery encourages Christians to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts, and let His will and His strength guide them from their weakness, to the fulfillment of a life free from addiction in the fellowship of the Christian Church.

Through Christian recovery, addicts take Jesus Christ into their hearts, admit their weaknesses and short comings to Him and to their community, and live a better life through His guidance, the guidance of the scriptures, and the fellowship of other Christians in recovery.

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We’re not strong enough, on our own. We’ll take that drink, that pill or that hit when we’re overcome with craving - when we need to escape.

But we don’t need to do this on our own.

God is plenty strong enough; He’s got strength to spare - and with Him, we can face down temptation and keep on walking another day away from the madness of abuse or addiction to the serenity of an honest Christian life.

When things get too hard, remember that you are not alone and you don’t need to do this on your own.

Have Faith; let God in and use His strength.

Just believe in Jesus and live as He wishes, and you never need to drink or use again.

Christian Rehab

Christian recovery recognizes alcoholism and drug addiction as diseases, and being healed requires submitting willpower to the guidance of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ comes peace, forgiveness, and the strength to live one day at a time without drugs or alcohol.

The Christian 12 Steps

Christian rehab generally follows peer based support programs closely affiliated with the 12 steps of Alcohol Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Christian recovery groups adhere to Jesus Christ's teaching as their primary guidance for recovery. The Savior's message is part of the treatment, in conjunction with other more traditional therapies such as AA, or inpatient treatment programs.

A Christian recovery program operates through peer based meetings of Christian fellowship between addicts. Alcoholics and Drug addicts submit their will and their hearts to the guidance of the Lord, and humble themselves before the Lord to feel His love, and use His strength on the road to recovery.

Prayer

Christian recovery groups use prayer actively in meetings, and use the scriptures for solace and strength, and as a tool towards recovery. Christians are encouraged to search their hearts for the Lord's will, to humble themselves before the Lord through an admission of worldly weaknesses and shortcomings, and through an acceptance that only through God's will and Gods' guidance is recovery possible.

Step four is tricky. It's a real tough step, it requires of us to dig down deep into our souls, and attempt to understand our shortcomings.

Step four reveals truth, and this revelation of truth - however painful the process may be - creates a beautiful foundation of honesty for a redeveloping relationship with God. Step four allows us to open our souls with real honesty to the Lord, and for the first time in a long while (for most of us) it allows us to really start feeling His love.

Step four calls for you to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself.

Searching and fearless, not something you do in an hour, and something that requires real courage to do well. We don’t tend to enjoy looking at our faults, but if we are to have any chance of getting better, we have to.

How Is It Done?

Both AA and the Christian 12 steps have you examine how you deal with resentment, fear and sex.

You create a page with four columns running down, and you start with the first column, and in this column you list all of your resentments. Resentments you have towards people, institutions and even ideas; and you continue writing until you have exhausted all you can think of.

Then you move to column two, and you list for each of your resentments why it is that you resent it, and you complete column two before moving onto the next column. Column three has you list how the resentment has affected your life. Has it affected your pride, your finances, your relationships or your ambitions? You finish this column before starting the last, and arguably most important column.

The fourth column has you look at how you dealt with each situation, each resentment. For each resentment, you are asked to fearlessly examine how you reacted with dishonesty, selfishness, fear or self seeking behaviors.

When you have finished with resentment you move onto fear and then sex, and repeat the same process twice more.

An Exercise in Humility!

Wow, talk about finding out - in detail - our flaws of character! It's a very painful but very liberating process of self discovery, and it's always humbling; and it does for us two incredible things.

Free Yourself!

Firstly, it forces us to turn the tables on how we have long looked at resentments we harbor. Instead of looking at "what they did to me" you start to examine "How did my actions in that situation make things worse". Once you can honestly let go of your one sided perceptions of resentments harbored, you begin to realize that all situations exist from a two sided dynamic, a dynamic between two fundamentally flawed people. Neither of you are perfect, only Christ is, and it's not your responsibility to judge anyone, that's God's job! Once you can see that you share some blame for the resentments you harbor, it becomes very easy to let go of your blame for others; and once you can do that, you will experience an incredible freedom!

These negative emotions just drag us down, and if we can free ourselves from them, we take a giant step forwards in our recovery, and a giant step forward to better lives of Christian Humility.

Understand Your Need for God

A lot of our behaviors as alcoholics and addicts are probably best described as selfishness, and this is something we really start to see as we make our fearless and searching moral inventory. We start to see very clearly the ways in which we are flawed, and we see very clearly how we so desperately need Christ's guidance and strength.

Oddly, although we might think that a realization of how flawed we truly are would feel bad, the realization of much we truly need God feels wonderful!

We need help and we know where to get it!

Prayer starts to feel a lot more real. Once we have been honest with ourselves and with God, we open ourselves up to hear His message, and that feels good too.

Step four is tough. It takes courage, determination and time to do it right, and we rarely like what we see of ourselves once finished. Step four is also beautiful. It's the first concrete action a lot of us have taken in a while that truly brings us closer to Christ, and the power of that is indescribable.

None so empty of grace as he that thinks he is full.

Thomas Watson

Getting over an addiction and at the same time coming to learn Christian humility, the true power of prayer and a deep sense of God's grace…Wow!

Grace is God's gift of love to us. A gift of love that we do not earn, and in fact as we are all sinners, do not deserve, but God gives it to us anyways. We cannot seek grace, we can only accept grace, for it is what God gives freely to all who will take it.

And it’s a beautiful thing, and it's also a very hard thing. It sounds easy – to just accept a gift from God – but in practice, especially if we have been drinking or drugging, we often feel unworthy of this gift and we do not let God's grace shine in.

But God Loves the Broken!

We forget that God does not ask of us to decide if we are worthy of his gift. He has chosen us, we do not choose Him! God knows we are sinners all, and in fact at the Sermon on the Mount, He made it pretty clear who would be invited first into the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not the people, who lead seemingly perfect lives, do all the right things and say all the right things (but without grace) that God favors…it is the broken and downtrodden, who will say to God, "I am broken and I need your help to do better" that He wants!

The first step to accepting Gods grace, and not surprisingly, the first steps of Christian recovery, is admitting to yourself and to God that you cannot do it without Him. Admitting But by the Grace of God I am what I am! Corinthians 15:10. Knowing in your heart that without God's gift of grace, you cannot live as God wishes, and you cannot do the things, like recover from addiction, that you need to do to live a good Christian life!

Steps 1 and 2 of the Christian twelve steps are steps towards accepting God's gift of grace into our hearts, and knowing that without God's grace we can never get better.

Step one has us admit that we cannot beat addiction on our own. We've tried and we've failed, and we need to let go.

Step 2 has us accept that although we cannot do it on our own, that through a trust in the Lord, through an acceptance of his grace, that we can get better.

Once you can accept, truly accept in your heart that there are things in this life that you cannot do on your own, but that you can do through the grace of God, you are on the right path to recovery!

Grace Doesn’t Mean That You Can Just Sit There and Get Better!

God gives us the gift of grace, it's a gift and we don’t do anything to deserve it or not, actually, the point of grace is that it's something we get even though we don’t deserve it!

This doesn’t mean though that we can just say "OK, I accept God's grace…why do I still drink?"

Grace gives us the ability to do good things…to DO them! Through grace we gain the desire and the strength and ability to live as God wishes. We're not perfect, and we never will be, but through God's grace we do the best we can. If we feel God's grace we feel a desire to do right, and if we feel God's grace, we have the strength of Christ to help us!

When we start to accept and live by God's grace, we gain the ability to do things we can’t do on our own. We can’t stop drinking on our own, but once we can feel God's grace, He will give us the strength and desire to do what needs to be done to get better!

Grace doesn't mean that you can just sit there; you are still going to have to work at your recovery. Accepting God's grace just means that with His help, with His gift of grace, you can now do what you could never do without His help.

You can’t get better on your own, yet far from this being a negative thing, when this spurs you to feel God's grace, to realize that it's His gift to you that has led you to recovery, and that through His strength, you can get better…it's an incredible feeling.

With true Faith we gain enormous courage.

Put your trust in God. Find the right and true path through prayer, a reading of the bible and group worship; and then follow God’s plan with a sincere and honest heart. Know that He walks alongside you; and know that whatever it is that scares you - does not frighten Him in the least.

God does not give us more than we can handle and He trusts in us to do right. The Christian way is not always the easiest but it is the way to truth and salvation – both in this world and the next.

When you feel afraid, read the Bible and find the courage you’ll need from a book filled with stories of incredible bravery and Faith - and remember:

“If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31ff)

In Christian recovery, the 9^th of Christian 12 steps demands that you make amends for past wrongs, except for when through the act of making amends you would cause undue harm.

We harm others through our selfish actions while using and abusing, and we need to make up for those harms.

But although through making a full Christian amends to those that you have wronged, you do find considerable peace, you do not make amends for yourself…and this is a considerable and vital distinction to make.

You make amends for them, not for you, and although through making honest and full amends you will benefit, if you approach it as something that you are doing for yourself, you will get little from it.

We cause pain through our selfish acts of ego, and to unravel some of this pain, we need to surrender our ego to the act, and approach the making of amends with an empathetic view, acting in such a way as to put the wellbeing of those we have harmed before our own. 

If you do truly put the wellbeing of others first, and approach step 9 completely unselfishly, completely empathetically; you will come to benefit and you will find a great deal of peace.

If you approach the making of amends as something that you are doing "for your peace and wellbeing" then you will find little of it!

You need to make things right with your God, with your community and with your family, and an honest participation in step 9 of the Christian 12 steps can help to bring you home.

Only through making amends to our family, to our community and to God, can we forgive ourselves, and become reborn free of sin through God's love.

Pray and God will forgive you. With the help of Christ, you can start to forgive yourself.

Praying for Forgiveness

Forgiveness begins with a soul searching of our weaknesses, our mistakes, and ultimately of those that we have harmed through our actions and to whom we need to make amends. Through making amends, we humble ourselves before God, and only through humbling ourselves can we forgive ourselves for our past indiscretions. Although we make amends to the community, we free ourselves from the burdens of the past, and receive God into our heart.

Forgiveness and God's love gives us the strength to live one day at a time without drugs or alcohol.

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