Faith-Empowered Bible Verses That Can Help Support Recovery and Life Transformation
Step Two of the Twelve Steps – James 1:5-6 – God Can, but Do I Doubt It?
Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
I think it goes without saying that “lacks wisdom” was intended by James to include conditions like ours. On some level, the fact that we are at the point where recovery has entered the discussion, there is some level of our lives that is not a strong wisdom point.
The simple instruction is to ask God because he gives generously and gives without a sense of disapproval. It is as simple as acknowledging the area that lacks wisdom (see Step 1 Article), then asking God who is generous. There is, however, a prerequisite to asking. You cannot have doubts about what God will do when you are petitioning him. That “came to believe” is the focus of Step 2.
Faith is the cost of admission for this process, and asking gets the results. If you want wisdom, Faith, by the definition James uses here, is evident by the absence of doubt.
Faith is the cost of admission for this the recovery journey, and asking God gets the results.
This is an entire step because, for many, it is a process and can be a struggle.
Jeremiah 32:27 – God is Powerful. Really powerful!
27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”
In the story of Job in the Bible, God speaks to Job after Job questions whether what is happening to him is fair. He questions the fairness of God in making all this evil happen to him.
In response, God reveals to him how much assumption has gone into questioning one he knows to be so powerful with a long list of profound questions. Here are just a couple of examples:
- “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
- “Can you send lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?”
- “Can you command the clouds to pour down rain or make the lightning flash at your will?”
- “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?”
- “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”
- “Will you condemn the Almighty and put Him on trial, questioning His ways and wisdom?”
The idea is that this fantastic being is outside of time and space who created everything. He creates light, outer space, the earth and the sun, and the moon in the first few lines of the Bible. Our concept of time is wholly based on the earth’s rotation relative to the sun and where you are. The other way we look at time is relative to light’s speed. Outer space and Earth are everything we know of as existence.
Scientists call this our “space-time continuum.” The term three-dimensional refers to having length, width, and height. That is the “space” in space-time continuum. Our space-time continuum is four-dimensional, having also time which is the “time” in space-time continuum.
Everything we see and understand is within the confines of those things, and they are our limiters. We can only do things within these four boundaries of our space-time continuum. God is a tough concept for us because he is not confined to by those four dimensions.
I say all of that to say that these are all described as things God creates in the first few words of the Bible. We are trapped within these confines, but logically, if he created them, he cannot be trapped within them like we are. God is more powerful than everything we can understand or do.
That is the premise for God’s questions to Job and us. Where were you when he laid the foundations of the earth? Can you make lightning bolts and send them crashing across the sky? Can you command the clouds to do things like make rain? Do you, as a minuscule grain in this existence, condemn this powerful creator of everything as wrong and proclaim yourself right? Do you have the power to call a trial to condemn the creator of everything?
That is the level of power and authority we are speaking of. He is kind to us and allows us to question him and his motives, and so on. We too often need clarification on this line of thought and think it is a right we have and not simply something he graciously allows to help us grow in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
Nothing is too powerful for God to do!
I say all that for perspective on the idea that nothing is too powerful for him. He uses tremendous grace in dealing with each of us that he is not forced to give us. God does it because he wants to. God has the ability and the desire to help; all he asks in return is faith without doubting.
Matthew 19:26 – We Can’t, But God Can and Will
26 And looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Knowing that he has the power is one part of the equation. But there is doubting that God has the ability to restore you, and then there is doubting that God will restore you. We know God is super powerful and outside of all the limits we can think of. The other question is will he step out of eternity into time and space to restore my life? Will he do it even if I am the one who messed it up?
We established in Step 1 that we ourselves do not possess the strength to keep ourselves sober. The people around us also have not been able to find the magic words or magic actions that will keep us sober. Knowing that he has the power is the fact that he has the strength to heal. The question that remains is will he heal us?
If we accept that no person, including ourselves, can make our addiction go away, we have to place our hope in a power that is greater than all of the people I just mentioned. This passage says God is just that. Whatever is impossible for people, God can do.
Whatever is impossible for people, God can do.
A significant key to understanding this passage is asking yourself why Jesus is saying it. Is he trying just to beat his chest, bragging about the strength of God? He is telling us that we have access to that power. He has all the power to do what all humanity cannot do.
Psalm 46:1-3 – God Wants to be Our Refuge and Strength for Recovery
1God is our refuge and strength, A very ready help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth shakes And the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah
This passage expresses the potential the power we have been describing is intended to have for humanity. This passage is not just about what he can do; this is a passage about what he has been doing for people and what he will do for us.
If you replace the word “trouble” with the word “recovery,” the passage is more personalized for us because we are being more specific about the “trouble” we are talking about.
God is our refuge and strength, a very ready help in RECOVERY (trouble). Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth shakes and the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, the mountains quake at its swelling pride.
This is the “want to” to go with the knowledge he “can do.” God’s position has not changed because we have read this; He always “could do” and has always “wanted to do.” If there is a change, it is in our understanding of what he can do and wants to do for us and not his power or desire to do for us.
God is our refuge and strength if we take refuge and strength from Him
God is our refuge and strength if we accept refuge and strength from Him. If we do that, He will be our eager help in every trouble and challenge in recovery and in life. With this knowledge, we do not have to have fear because we can take strength in our faith. Faith that God is eager to help and be our strength. It doesn’t matter if the whole world is shaken and falling; we can trust our Father in Heaven to get us through. Even if it gets tough, he will be our refuge and strength.
God has the power I do not possess on my own and cannot find for recovery, and God wants to use that power to give me strength and refuge. We have to believe, without doubt, and ask!
James 1:17 – This Power to “Restore” us to “Sanity” is a Gift From God
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or [a]shifting shadow.
Sometimes the fact that we have to apply faith and trust in God for all of this to work leads people to the idea that there is a price for Him to do things for us. This mindset makes God like an intergalactic UBER or Lyft Driver. We order a trip to somewhere (let’s say recovery), we make the request, including the destination, and then we get a cost we will have to pay for that trip.
That is one way to process how this works, but we can take another view. What if not having faith without doubt and not trusting in God is actually an obstacle that he allows us to put in the way? He is definitely powerful enough to force us or puppet us around the way that you see evil spirits controlling people in horror movies about demonic possession. He wants us to choose Him, allowing us to choose or resist him. Not choosing Him is not God ignoring us; we are putting up an obstacle between Him and us.
Not having faith without doubt and not trusting in God is actually an obstacle we put in our own way!
Step 2 is about processing the fact that God can and will help if we stop putting obstacles between Him and us.