Twelve Steps Step Nine Healing Broken Relationships (1)
Tuesday December 6, 2016
Making amends is a responsibility we must take very seriously if we want to protect our sobriety. While making amends is not necessarily a comfortable process, it is necessary for our growth. If we don’t try to sort out our part in what went wrong in our past relationships, there is a very good chance that we will make the same mistakes again.
Suppose you are offering your gift at the altar. And you remember that your brother or sister has something against you. Leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and make peace with them. Then come back and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24 NIRV)
For us to risk taking the first step in making amends with others would be impossible if God had not first demonstrated the way for us. Over and over again we failed to keep God’s commandments and yet while we were still in rebellion God sent His Son Jesus into the world to atone for our sin, so that we could be reconciled to Him. God has completed the work necessary for us to know peace and now He calls us to extend that peace to others in our circle of family and friends. God didn’t wait for us to come to Him. He prepared in advance. He reached out to us with this wonderful gift of reconciliation when we didn't dare approach Him. As we begin the work of restoring our troubled relationships, we can reflect on God’s way of reconciliation. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19 NLT)
When we make amends under the guidance of our loving God, everyone is blessed. Confessing our wrong to someone means they no longer need to carry around the lingering excess baggage of the event. The resentment each of us held towards one another will begin to disappear and we will both experience more freedom in the future. Heavenly Father, Thank you for sending Jesus into the world to make relationship with You possible. Now I ask You to work in my heart so that I might make right my past relationships with others.
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