Faith-Empowered Bible Verses That Can Help Support Recovery and Life Transformation
Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
James 5:16 – Confessing as Vital to Recovery
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.
James 5:16 New American Standard Bible
James 5:16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Now that you have an honest, searching inventory and have mourned and wept, what now? If that part of the process is done right, you wrote down and analyzed a lot and end up with a long list of people you have hurt by your conduct and resentments. That was huge, and if done correctly, that was a huge victory.
This is a list of prideful things that are hindering your faith walk. A list of things that are obstacles to your relationship with God. God wants to drive our recoveries and be closer to us, but we do, we believe, and we hold on to things that separate us from Him. This is a list of things that have blocked us off from him as noted on page 71 of the Alcoholics Anonymous book.
We hope that you are convinced now that God can remove whatever self-will has blocked you off from Him. If you have already made a decision and an inventory of your grocer handicaps, you have made a good beginning.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 71
If this was done with the thoroughness and honesty that was outlined, then it was a significant amount of work that took a substantial amount of time. The truth is, this was just one segment of a much longer journey. It was a challenging segment, but completing this segment is not the end of the journey, it is simply a significant milestone that marks important progress along the way.
So Far, Your Inventory is Simply a List of Things That You Have That Hinder Your Relationship With God (if done correctly)!
The hard work of creating and then having a list is only as important as what you do with this list. Without everything that follows it becomes just a warm-up that never amounted to much. Don’t get me wrong, and honest look at yourself prayerfully is always of some benefit. An individual growing in connectedness to God with prayer and humility is always positive progress in a recovery journey and in a faith journey.
The problem is, that for this process, if a person stops here that person is like a person who is making soup to eat because they are starving. That person gets that pot, and spends a lot of time and effort scrubbing it and preparing it to make soup. That person gets an amazing recipe for soup, gets all the ingredients and starts boiling the water.
Then when the water boils that person turns the water off and does nothing. Nothing is put in the pot despite that fact that everything is there to make an amazing soup. Once the water goes from hot, to lukewarm and eventually back to room temperature all that person has made is a start, but nothing even remotely like soup.
Proverbs 28:13: Freedom from Concealing
13One who conceals his wrongdoings will not prosper, But one who confesses and abandons them will find compassion.
I remember when I was a child my mother sometimes would buy just a few potatoes and sometimes she would find them in bulk and have to store them in cabinets like the ones below the sink. When she bought just a few she would put them in those metal fruit baskets or in a bowl that sat out.
When she bought them in bulk, she would put the entire potato bag in that dark cabinets below the counters where something completely different would eventually happen. The ones in the bowls that were sitting out usually got used pretty fast, but if not just went bad and got soft and turned funny colors.
If Kept in Darkness, Our Shortcomings and the Problems They Cause Grow.
Bringing Them into the Light Overcomes Them.
The ones in the cabinet were somehow triggered by the darkness in a way that told them to start growing and they would sprout shoots as if planted in the ground.
Those bulk potatoes in darkness are equivalent to our Fourth Step Inventories it we do not do what comes next.
Having made our personal inventory, what shall we do about it? We have been trying to get a new attitude, a new relationship with our creator, and to discover the obstacles in our path. We have admitted certain defects; we have ascertained in a rough way what trouble is; we have put our finger on the weak items in our personal inventory. Now these are about to be cast out. This requires action on our part, which when completed, will mean that we have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our defects. This brings us to the Fifth Step in the program of recovery mentioned.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 72
These listed “people we have hurt” and listed things blocking us off from God, will grow if kept in darkness. They have to be brought out of the darkness of just being seen by us and into the light of admitting them to God, to ourselves and to another person.
As the passage from Proverbs 28 informs us, if we conceal our wrongdoings we cannot prosper, but if we “confess” and “abandon” them, we will find compassion. This is a list of what is blocking the flow of what God wants to do for us in recovery and life, so we need to confess and abandon everything on that list.
1 John 1:9 – Confess My Way Out of Darkness Towards Recovery
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The first verse we discussed for the Fifth Step was James 5:16, which directs us to confess our sins to one another. This concept lets us know that the confession must be to another person or other people. This passage from 1 John lets us know that this confession will bring us closer to God and that he will not only forgive us but also cleanse us of “all unrighteousness.
These items on our list are a growing self-destructive force when left in the dark. But through the light of confession, each of these items is the potential for growing closer to God and to be cleansed of unrighteousness.
If we confess each of these items to ourselves, to God, and another person or other people, they are keys to freedom. If not, the darkness they possess will grow in the shadows and realistically be forces that eat away at our lives and their recoveries.
This is a compound step in the process consisting of three segments.
- Admitting to yourself
- Admitting to God
- Admitting to another or others
Admitting to yourself is complicated, and some of that was done in Step Four. As you will find, I keep saying throughout the recovery process, things like this are always just theory until tested.
The theory is that you admitted these things, but can they stand the test of others and of God’s discussion of these items with you and how you describe how you feel about these people and things now.
I find that admitting to God is a repeat process you do every time you review something from the list. Remember that we are now supposed to be in the habit of trusting in and relying upon God. Praying to God for things has to start being a first stop, not a last resort, for every one of us. If God is a last resort stop for our lives, we are not relying on and trusting in Him; we are relying and trusting in ourselves and going to Him when that does not work.
Many Aspects of Our Recovery Journey and of Our Faith Journey that we Believe About Ourselves are in Reality Theoretical Until Tested.
Admitting to another person or people is also tricky. The obvious person or people is any sponsor or mentor you are tied to in this process. For many of us, that is not it.
Some of our denominations or other religions would also like us to confess to the clergy of various forms. We need to seek out a clergy member who understands the process and has the time to hear us confess to them.
Another level that must be addressed is confessing all or some of these to clinical professionals. There may be things on our lists that require intensive clinical interventions. It is best to find a clinician familiar with the process and with experience with Twelve Step programs, but if not, do not delay to get some clinical professional involved and begin to confess and work through those issues as well.
Psalm 32:5 – Recovery. Keep Going Back
5I acknowledged my sin to You, And I did not hide my guilt; I said, “I will confess my wrongdoings to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
As we confess and review items on this list with other people, we will have more to acknowledge and admit to ourselves and more to go to God confessing. We have to go to God and pray before, during, and after the process and probably before and after each item on the last. We rely on God at all points in the process, which means talking to Him and being guided by Him. That also means confessing any new revelation or epiphany to him.
We have to go to God and pray before, during, and after the process!
Step Five is another time-consuming step that consumes much energy and is full of emotions, as with other steps. Again, nothing counts except thoroughness and honesty.
This passage from Psalm 32:5 explains how this freedom is achieved, but we have to look at the passages immediately before it for the details outlining the why.
Psalm 32:1-4 Recovery: The War Between Silent Sin and Confessed Freedom
How blessed is he whose wrongdoing is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! 2 How blessed is a person whose guilt the Lord does not take into account, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! 3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality failed as with the dry heat of summer. Selah
When I kept silent about these things, I wasted away and groaned all day long. God’s hand was heavy upon me. Even my “vitality failed.” That is why we must confess these dark things from our lives to one another, as in James 5:16, and confess these dark things to God, as in Psalm 32:5.
None of that will matter if we are not sincere. That means we have to sincerely admit each of these things to ourselves as a true evil within ourselves that has to be confessed and turned from before we can admit them to others and God.
Some of them will be incredibly hard to admit and confess, which is normal. We pray and keep trying until it happens. Many Christian circles call that “praying until you have the breakthrough.” This is work and sometimes requires strenuous effort on your part.
We must confess these dark things from our lives to one another, as in James 5:16, and confess these dark things to God, as in Psalm 32:5
Who or whatever gave any of us the idea that recovery would not require hard work and strenuous effort was misleading or lying, according to the experience of most of us.
When we decide who is to hear our story, we waste no time. We have a written inventory and we are prepared for a long talk. We explain to our partner what we are about to do and why we have to do it. He should realize that we are engaged upon a life and death errand. Most people approached in this way will be glad to help; they will be honored by our confidence.
Step Five Must be Done… WITHOLDING NOTHING!
We pocket our pride and go to it, illuminating every twist of character, every dark cranny of the past. Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 75
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