Partners
In Hope

Step Nine The Will To Make Amends

Saturday September 3, 2022

 Making amends requires a will to do so.  Some of us struggle to be sorry for our actions towards others or are more offended by what another person did to cause our reaction.  The goal of Step 9 is to make amends wherever possible to people we have harmed, except when to do so would injure them or others. 

You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed.  He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. (Colossians 2:13 TLB) 
The above scripture says God forgave us all our sins and blotted out the charges proved against us.  We know what we have done and yet God was willing to have Jesus pay the penalty for our sin so we could be set free.  Some people we have harmed have also harmed us or others known to us, and we may be hesitant to complete this step and make direct amends to them.  We believe their sin is greater than ours so they deserved what we did to them.  This is not God’s way of dealing with sin.

 

Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could be right with God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ERV) 

When we are selective about making amends it may indicate that there is a lack of repentance about the sins we have committed, or that we are unwilling to love a person because of the harm they have caused.  Perhaps we need to see this person in the light of God’s love for us and treat them as God has treated us, then making amends should become easier.

 We love because God first loved us. God gave us this command: If we love God, we must also love each other as brothers and sisters. (1 John 4:19, 21 ERV)

 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I want to make direct amends to everyone I have harmed and ask that You fill me with Your love for them so that I may do so with a willing heart.  Amen

 

 

©2022 Partners in Hope 

More information on this and other related topics @ http://www.partnersinhope.ca/life-with-god-in-recovery-resources/

Audio for Step Nine The Will To Make Amends

Recent Meditations

OLD GROWTH GOODNESS
March 31, 2025
ANGER
March 30, 2025
DISCOVERING TRUTH
March 29, 2025
AFFIRMED AND ACCOMPANIED BY A LOVING GOD
March 28, 2025
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
March 27, 2025
See all

Giving Hope

Partners in Hope is supported wholly by our friends and community. We are thankful to everyone who partners with us to help bring hope to the discouraged, hurting, and hopeless.