Sobriety and the Grace of God

Jesus says: “So do not worry about tomor­row; for tomor­row will care for itself. Each day has enough trou­ble of its own” (Mat 6:34). In A.A. they told me: “Live one day at a time.” I was intrigued at this phi­los­o­phy, and I thought for a long time that A.A. con­jured up that phi­los­o­phy on their own. Lit­tle did I real­ize that it is a Bib­li­cal principle!

That phi­los­o­phy helped me to cel­e­brated 4 years of sobri­ety on Octo­ber 22nd. It’s tempt­ing to think: “Wow, look at all I did to stay sober,” but then you real­ize how pride­ful that sen­ti­ment is and how it robs God of His due glory. Instead, I would like to make a pub­lic tes­ti­mony to the work of God’s grace in my life.

Five years ago the only thing I cared about was where I would get high that day, and today I’m on my way to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. That kind of rad­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion does not hap­pen merely by human effort. It was the work of the Gospel in my life to real­ize that it was the only solid foun­da­tion in which to rest my hope and sobri­ety upon.

A.A. told me, in their third step, that we: “Made a deci­sion to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we under­stood Him.” It’s hum­bling to real­ize now that I had blind eyes to even make a deci­sion, and that the the Liv­ing God is not “as we under­stood Him” but as how He under­stood us. Praise be to Him!