12 Step Recovery from James 4...

James’ 12 Step Recovery Program:

1.   Willingly admit that I have avoided the root-causes and have blamed the side-effects which have led to my present disorientation and desperation.

James 4:1a - What causes fights and quarrels among you?

2.   Come to realize that there is--and always has been--a fierce battle inside of me between my flesh and my spirit for the control of my life.

James 4:1b - Don’t they come from your own desires that battle within you?

3.   Recognize that most of my inner turmoil is born out of disappointment due to unmet needs and unfulfilled expectations—right or wrong.

James 4:2a - You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.        

4.   Begin to acknowledge that my anger at God for not helping me out stems from wanting many good things for bad reasons—wrong motives.

James 4:2b-3a - You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives.

5.   Admit the cyclical pattern of how I have taken God’s blessings and abused them on my own personal pleasure to temporarily medicate my emptiness.

James 4:3b - You spend what you get on your own pleasures.

6.   Own up to the fact that I have rejected God’s desire for a monogamous relationship and have kept cheating on Him with other gods to cope with my crap.

James 4:4 - You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?

7.   Quit interpreting God’s jealousy for me as an unrealistic demand meant to trap me and begin seeing it as a reasonable desire of relationally healthy love.

James 4:5 - Do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 

8.   Come to understand that God is thwarting my proud attempt to create my own reality apart from truth--and this is for my ultimate good.

James 4:6b - God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.

9.   Humbly choose to submit to God’s desires and to break soul ties with the devil who I have allowed to rule and rob me.

James 4:7 - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

10. Accept Jesus’ invitation to draw near to him by washing my hands of my Rebel-self and my heart of my False-self.

James 4:8 - Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

11. Rid myself of the fake feelings I’ve hidden behind for so long and finally let myself lament over the injury I’ve endured and caused…to leave behind the poser and begin to change.

James 4:9 - Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

12. Finally, trust that a life of humble submission to God’s Love will lift me from now on and that I don’t need to lift myself, hate myself, or medicate myself anymore.

James 4:10 - Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

The Rebar of Recovery

James 4:6a – But He gives more grace…

Grace says, “I’ll never quit on you while I’m fighting against you for you.  And just in case you wondered, you can’t exhaust me.  There’s plenty more where that came from. Relax, I’m not going anywhere.”

-------------------------------------

Man is born broken. He lives by mending.

The grace of God is the glue. - Eugene O'Neill