What role has religion and spirituality played in your sobriety?
1 Like
Throughout my lifetime my relationship with God was not super strong but the past 5 years, I have grown closer to Him and my spiritual maturity has grown tremendously over the past 2 years. My walk with God has not always been easy but it has given me the strength to resist temptation and also been one of the key factors in feeling like I don't need to carry the heavy burdens alone. My past is forgiven because I asked our Heavenly Father for forgiveness and it took a bit of time for my heart to heal and for me to forgive myself but I believe God gives us grace and mercy in this point of self healing. During this holy week, I'm particularly hit hard of the ultimate sacrifice done for my sins, all of our sins with Jesus Christ having to die on the cross for us and reminds me I can no longer make excuses for my backsliding behavior and have to take control over my life and emotions. God fills me with the fruits of the Holy spirit; joy, patience, love, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness & most importantly to me at the moment self control. I'm extremely grateful and honestly don't know where I would be if I didn't seek to build a stronger relationship with our Higher Power.
2 Likes
My spiritual journey didnāt start with religion. At first I had no idea what spirituality even was. And as for religious beliefs I was agnostic.
Fast forward, today I have a deep wanting of a spiritual experience and have since evolved to incorporate going to church and listening to what the Bible has to offer. I pray and meditate. Iām consciously contacting God daily. Iām grateful for Godās presence in my life. I feel very blessed to be alive today. Iām learning to keep an open mind about all things religious.
My God rules me 24/7. Wake up. Say hello. Eat food, say hello. Go to bed, say good night. That simple. Let his will rule. Works for me. Not into religions tho. If I follow a religion, then I follow that religions god. I prefer my God instead which is the real God, to me at least. To each their own.
Coming to the āGod of my own understandingā thing. I was so motivated by trying to control my own life, and letting my willfulness get in the way that I hadnāt realized that I was literally living in an unsustainable way. I couldnāt juggle all the things I was trying to and be āokayā, but I couldnāt ask anyone for help because I had to be the best single mom, the best nurse, I had to handle EVERYTHING on my own while divorcing an abusive husband. I couldnāt do it. What did I do instead? I self medicated those feelings of exhaustion and grief and fear, because if I didnāt feel it, it wouldnāt take me down. Obviously my method of numbing my feelings did. Someone said āLet go and Let Godā and I was rather annoyed. Until I really sat on my thoughts and realized that a higher power could be anything.
1 Like
There ya go. Thatās the key
My higher power is Prince, or Bowie, Janis, Freddy Mercuryā¦ āGodās of my own understanding. Funny, I feel perfectly at ease sending my worries and gratitude up to themā¦.
My higher power is the people in the room, their stories and their experiences. Religion is what has always kept me away from AA and most other recovery plans. I'm navigating that much better now.