Feeling Vulnerable (2)
Tuesday July 7, 2015
Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols. (Psalm 40:4 NLT)
To successfully journey along in our life in recovery we must begin to trust God to meet our innermost needs and ask Him to fill us up with Holy Spirit’s power on a daily basis. As we intentionally reflect on what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will -- and put it into practice we find that all God has promised begins to satisfy the nagging emptiness within. We daily ask God for understanding of His word and how to apply His principles to our lives. We find those promises and principle in God's word - the Bible. We read the Bible and discuss what we’ve read with our pastor, sponsor, mentor or other Godly persons in order that we may fully understand what God is saying to us. This is how a person begins to be “filled up” on a daily basis.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV)
The founders of AA described this practice in Step 11 when they encouraged us, "through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out." As we seek to live in God’s will every day we ask God to help us deal with those events in our past that our addiction helped us medicate—feelings of pain and loss, loneliness, frustration, grief and dissatisfaction.
How can we ensure these areas of vulnerability are now occupied with healthy thoughts and behaviours? If we desire to live the life we've always longed for, then our familiar response of hiding our weaknesses will have to change. How do we do that? We first have to be willing to admit to the presence of these feelings we’d like to medicate and recognize that they relate to events we have never fully faced. As honestly as we know how, we name our vulnerability to the painful events of our past and trust that Jesus will work all these things together for our good. We ask Him for healing for the deeply wounded areas in our soul and, in faith, receive health and wholeness from our Heavenly Father. It’s helpful also to seek out trusted people to talk and pray with us.
The words of a beloved old song give us a prayer that helps us admit our vulnerability and ask for help. Let's sing, say, and live this prayer today: I am weak but thou art strong. Jesus keep me from all wrong. I’ll be satisfied as long, as I walk, let me walk close to thee. Just a closer walk with thee, grant it Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to thee. Let it be, dear Lord let it be. Thru this world of toils and snares, if I falter Lord, who cares? Who with me my burden shares? None but thee, dear Lord, none but thee.
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