Spiritual Recovery From Drugs or Alcohol Through Repentance and Forgiveness Toward Others
If you are angry, and you suspect that anger contributes to using alcohol or drugs, then this article will be of interest to you. I will be talking abut the emotional and the spiritual side of life.
Many people turn to drugs or alcohol because they are angry at injustice. People who have a keen sense of justice often become angry at the injustice around them. Being full of rage leads to pain. And such people will often try to shut down their perception of reality with drugs or drink.
Another thing: anger and resentment make us guilty. We become guilty for hate, for suppressed hostility, and for harboring secret resentment against others.
Remember: humans are creatures of love. And when we become full of hate, we sense something wrong. Sensing something wrong with the way we exist (being hateful instead of loving) is not a bad thing. It is a good thing: it is our conscience trying to make us aware that we need to change our attitude and learn to take things in stride.
But as long as we are unwilling to admit that we are wrong (for resenting), we also seek to avoid conscience. And again, many turn to drugs or alcohol to diminish awareness.
If you grasp the basic principle that our conscience is the wordless Word of God (God's inner light wordlessly making the soul aware of something out of order-- you will see that it is an error and wrong to avoid conscience and try to hide from it.
Guilt for avoiding conscience leads to another round of guilt, which the person seeks to run from.
So what to do? Learn to meditate to find and get closer to conscience. Bear the brief pain of seeing your own wrong in the light of conscience, and be willing to change.
I've saved the best for last. Conscience is another word for intuition. And when you repent and become a friend of conscience, you become a friend of intuition. Now you are glad to have intuition there, like a gentle guide, leading you rightly and giving you delicate guidance and delicate realizations about life.
When conflict with intuition ceases, you become innocent before conscience and become happy go lucky again, like a child. You will be full of joy and hope.
Yes, you will still see injustice. You still won't like it. But now you will know the secret to self control. You will see error without hating the person. You don't have to like error. Just don't hate (resent others) and of course, don't resent yourself either.
I have to say that some of the nicest people are in jail. And some of the nicest people are on drugs. Many came from homes where dad was not there, where authorities abused them and were cruel. This made them angry at the injustice and eventually full of hate. Dear reader, if you are one of these souls--all you have to do is drop your resentments toward those who hurt or failed you. See that they were victims too. Someone did it to them. Forgive them--in other words, drop your resentments--and a burden will be lifted from your shoulders.
Truth with love is like what we all need. It used to be called tough love. It is honest, like a breath of fresh air. It doesn't want anything from you. It's like a wake up call. And the first thing that truth with love will tell the addict is that he or she has a problem because of resentment.
It is resentment that begins our downward slide from innocence and freedom into slavery. We resent our mom or dad or someone else. Then someone or something comes along and comforts us in our resentful state, and we then become enslaved by that comfort.
Truth with love is what we all need.
Fortunately, you can find truth with love on your own. It's as near as your own conscience which wordlessly and gently makes you aware that there is something wrong with the prideful, resentful lifestyle. It is this wordless conscience beckoning you back that is proof that God has not abandoned you and that He might yet accept you if you will be sorry and humbly accept His forgiveness.
If you do not know how to be still (and get out of the squirrel cage of thinking), then check out the spiritual recovery meditation we offer for free. There are no strings attached.
Why is our meditation so potentially helpful? Because those of us who are sincere and searching sense that repentance is the key, but don't quite know how. They recognize the truth of what Christians say. They love the beautiful words and promises. They may make some external steps (cleaning up their life, changing associates, going to church, reading the Bible), but there is some sort of internal step they don't quite know how to take.
Therefore, the practice of our simple meditation helps and complements sincere spiritual searching. In other words, it helps the sincere person become a better Christian. It helps you to see and understand deeply the beautiful things you hear in church.
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Related reading:
Giving Up Toxic Emotions
Guilt For Resenting Parents Is Often a Factor in Why Kids Turn to Drugs or Alcohol
