| Step 3 Scriptures |  |  |  |
Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God |
| Psalms 3:1-6 | |
| 3:1 | Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. |
| 3:2 | Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. |
| 3:3 | But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. |
| 3:4 | I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. |
| 3:5 | I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me. |
| 3:6 | I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. |
12Step.org Comments: | |
| When we are setting our face towards finding the Truth about a Higher Power who can restore us to sanity, and as we turn more and more to the God that we find in that search, then sometimes it may seem that things can get difficult. It might seem that those who would want to entice us back into our addictive habits are "many" that would "rise up against me". Just by selling what they are selling or doing what they are doing these people, businesses or organizations can be sources of tempation for us, whether it be alcohol, pornography, easy credit, gambling, prescription or illegal drugs, or whatever our area of temptation or those of our loved ones might be. We can realize, though, that it has always been so. There have always been those in every age who aim to bring down the righteous, to destroy righteousness in their own lives and the lives of others. In this Psalm, David was to some extent reaping what he sowed because of his sin with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband Uriah. The prophet Nathan predicted that trouble would not leave David's house because of this sin. In a similar way, we are reaping from the sin in our lives. And yet, David knew that in spite of his sin God still loved him and wanted the best for him. David turned to God as his shield and found rest and sustenance in God's protection. We, too, can turn to God and in His mercy we can find rest, sustenance and deliverance from the evil and temptations around us. We no longer have to be afraid of the "ten thousands of people" that may be in the businesses, organizations or in unhealthy belief systems that can be sources of temptation for us. We have found our protection, our rest and our peace in God. | |
| Psalms 142:1-7 | |
| 142:1 | I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. |
| 142:2 | I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. |
| 142:3 | When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. |
| 142:4 | I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. |
| 142:5 | I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. |
| 142:6 | Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. |
| 142:7 | Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. |
12Step.org Comments: | |
| This is a cry, a plea for help from God, from the LORD who is the only one who can truly deliver.It is a cry from when "my spirit is overwhelmed within me". It is a cry when "there was no man that would acknowledge me". It is a cry when "no man cared for my soul". It is a cry to bring "my soul out of prison". And the hope and belief of David in this psalm is that the LORD will be "my refuge and my portion in the land of the living." The LORD will "deliver me from my persecutors". The LORD will "deal bountifully with me." We have the benefit of being able to look back in time and see that the LORD did indeed fulfill all of these pleas of David. We have the advantage of time also in that in this age God has given us the way of the cross, of redemption through Christ Jesus. In the situation of our recovery, our enemies are the addictions that we have allowed or brought into our lives. The power behind these addictions is also crafty, having "secretly laid a snare" for us. In our addiction, we usually come to the point where "no man cared for my soul" and our soul is in the prison of our addictive behaviors. We can have confidence that when we cry to the LORD in sincerity and honesty for deliverance through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, that the LORD will "deal bountifully" with us as well. | |
| Matthew 4:18-23 | |
| 4:18 | And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. |
| 4:19 | And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. |
| 4:20 | And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. |
| 4:21 | And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. |
| 4:22 | And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. |
| 4:23 | And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. |
12Step.org Comments: | |
| Peter, Andrew, James and John all followed Jesus when He called them from their regular tasks. They obviously sensed in some manner that this was a call from a Higher Power, from their God. So they turned over their lives to God, leaving behind the familiar so that they could know and experience the true life that comes from following the true God. | |
| Matthew 6:24-34 | |
| 6:24 | No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. |
| 6:25 | Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? |
| 6:26 | Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? |
| 6:27 | Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? |
| 6:28 | And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: |
| 6:29 | And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. |
| 6:30 | Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? |
| 6:31 | Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? |
| 6:32 | (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. |
| 6:33 | But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. |
| 6:34 | Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. |
12Step.org Comments: | |
| Here Christ Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we need to put God first and foremost in our lives, above the pursuit of money (mammon) or any other earthly concern..And having done that, then we can trust God in faith to take care of all of our day to day needs. We just need to trust and obey Him," turning our lives over to God as we understand God" so far in our walk of living in the Truth. | |
| Luke 9:59-62 | |
| 9:59 | And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. |
| 9:60 | Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. |
| 9:61 | And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. |
| 9:62 | And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. |
12Step.org Comments: | |
| Here is Luke's Gospel we see Jesus telling His followers that following Him requires great commitment. It requires following Him above and beyond what we might have thought was valuable before we began following Him. | |
| John 1:12-13 | |
| 1:12 | But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: |
| 1:13 | Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. |
12Step.org Comments: | |
| In this passage we find that through believing "on his name", that is the name of Jesus, we are re-born as a child of God. This re-birth is not from a willing of man or of birth, but it is through the power and grace of God through Christ Jesus. If we have found Jesus Christ to be our Higher Power, then by this belief in Him we are re-born as God's child by God's grace. God in Christ Jesus then provides the power that can lead us away from the insanity of our addictive behaviors. | |
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