We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. The word “Entered” and the phrase “Entered into the world of the Spirit” are very significant. They imply action, a beginning, getting into, a prerequisite to maintaining my spiritual growth, the “Spirit” being the immaterial part of me. Barriers to my spiritual growth are self–centeredness and a materialistic focus on worldly things. Spirituality means devotion to spiritual rather than worldly things, it means obedience to God’s will for me. I understand spiritual things to be: unconditional love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self–control and humility. Any time I allow selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear to be a part of me, I block out spiritual things. As I maintain my sobriety, growing spiritually becomes a lifelong process. My goal is spiritual growth, accepting that I'll never have spiritual perfection.
Twenty–Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
We’ve got rid of our false, drinking selves and found our real, sober selves. And we turn to God, our Father, for help, just as the Prodigal Son arose and went to his father. At the end of the story, the father of the Prodigal Son says: “He was dead and is alive again, he was lost and he is found.” We alcoholics who have found sobriety in A.A. were certainly dead and are alive again. We were lost and are found. Am I alive again?
Meditation For The Day
Gently breathe in God’s spirit, that spirit which, if not barred out of selfishness, will enable you to do good works. This means rather that God will be enabled to do good works through you. You can become a channel for God's spirit to flow through you and into the lives of others. The works that you can do will only be limited by your spiritual development. Let your spirit be in harmony with God's spirit and there is no limit to what you can do in the realm ofhuman relationships.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may become a channel for God's spirit. I pray that God's spirit may flow through me and into the lives of others. As Bill Sees It Dependence–Unhealthy or Healthy. "Nothing can be more demoralizing than a clinging and abject dependence upon another human being. This often amounts to the demand for a degree of protection and love that no one could possibly satisfy. So our hoped–for protectors finally flee, and once more we are left alone–either to grow up or to disintegrate.” We discovered the best possible source of emotional stability to be God Himself. We found that dependence upon His perfect justice, forgiveness, and love was healthy, and that it would work where nothing else would. If we really depended upon God, we couldn't very well play God to our fellows, nor would we feel the urge to rely wholly on human protection and care.
Walk in Dry Places
Believing In Justice Justice
“What goes around, comes around,” is a popular saying. It's often used to suggest that certain arrogant, unprincipled people will eventually receive their comeuppance. It conveys the idea that there's a hidden justice at work in human affairs that assures all injustice will eventually be punished.
But if it works to punish, this hidden justice also rewards right actions, and this is more important in our working of the program. If we act from good motives, we’ll always find that our work is rewarded in some way. No alcoholic who performs a service in the fellowship goes unrewarded. Quite often the reward is simply a personal sense of well–being and growth in character, but these may be more important than money or recognition. Justice is one of the cardinal virtues–a Godlike attribute that human beings strive to understand. Believing in justice is believing in the Hidden Power that orders justice in all things. I’ll view my world today as something that is controlled and ordered by a Just Power. Reward and retribution are built into the scheme of things, but I’ll focus more on actions that bring the right kind of rewards.
Keep It Simple
God loves the world through us – Mother Teresa
In Step Three, we turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. How do we feel God's care, God’s love? We feel God's care and love through how people treat us. Our Higher Power works through people who love us back to life. With time, we begin returning this care and love to others. We feel this warm love flow right through us and out to others. We’re kind without trying to be. We smile at others for no reason. We comfort those who hurt just by holding them. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, use me to make Your love real to someone today.
Action for the Day: Fear sometimes keeps me from loving. I’ll list three things I’m afraid will happen if I’m “To loving.” I’ll share these fears with my sponsor.
Father Leo’s Daily Meditation
Balance
“There are two ways to slide easily through life: To believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.” – Alfred Korzybski
This statement is so true for me. I was so compulsive and obsessive not only about the things that I believed in but also about the things I didn’t believe in. I was extreme. Everything I did was exaggerated. I either raced through life at ten thousand miles an hour or was in neutral. Balance was absent. Today I am developing balance in my life, more patience and more tolerance. I have discovered that my extremism was a mask by which I hid from life; I did not have to think, consider or ponder – I simply reacted. Now I know that to believe in everything is to believe nothing; and to doubt everything is not to think. Life is “A many splendored thing” but it has a variety of options. God of the many, help me to discover You in the myriad of thoughts that life produces.
Daily Inspiration
Take care of your own emotional and spiritual needs first and it will become natural to reach out lovingly to others. Lord, I depend on Your help in every situation. Delighting in the happiness of others will make your heart too big for your body. Lord, help me set aside my jealousies and celebrate the blessings of others. Their blessings will then be a blessing for me too.
Contributed by Shreerang Karkare
