Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Liberation (05/02/24)
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TITLE: Free From The Claws | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Fahy
05/08/24 -
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Everyone around me could see it. Was I sticking my head in the sand and didn’t want to admit it? Denial. After my second driving under the influence conviction, I finally admitted I had a problem with alcohol.
I attempted to stop on my own many times. It was a white-knuckle existence agonizing for me and my family. Peace and contentment were fleeting ideas.
A friend called me and asked me if I wanted to go to an AA meeting? Reluctantly I said yes.
I sat silent through the meeting and really didn’t hear very much. They gave me a schedule of meetings. There was a Men’s Stag meeting that was very convenient for me at 12:15PM Monday through Friday.
I attended the meeting the next day and I felt at home. I left right after the meeting, but I knew I would be returning the next day. I began to attend that meeting five days a week. These men knew how I felt.
There was one aspect of the program. I wasn’t very keen on. It was the god thing. It was God as we understood him. They called him their Higher Power or HP, Creative Intelligence or Universal Mind and various other names.
About this time, my wife began to attend church with our children. Our relationship was warming up and she invited me to go some Sunday morning with them? I told her I would. The next Sunday as a family we piled in our Dodge Dart and off to church we went. My wife took our children to their respective rooms, and we went into the Bible study before the service.
The Bible lesson was about Jesus healing a blind man. It was not only a physical healing, but a spiritual healing as well. We continued as a family going to our classes and Sunday services. After a while, we included Wednesday night Bible study. I could identify to a degree about a spiritual healing. I always felt that there was an empty space inside of me that never seemed to be fulfilled.
AA had opened the door for me to begin developing a relationship with God. After I finished the steps of AA, I invited Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Physically and mentally, I was feeling better and thinking better about myself, other people, and my circumstances.
I found myself digging deeper into the Word of God. When I accepted Jesus, I believed I would stop sinning. I would get upset with myself when I sinned. Jesus died on the cross, to free me from sin. His blood wiped away my sins. Through his crucifixion and resurrection, I am no longer a slave to sin. Just as the obsession for alcohol left me, I thought sinning would leave me. Then I learned that I had a sin nature in me, and it will be a battle that I will constantly fight temptation and sin daily.
The Holy Spirit that abides in me guides and councils me to be the person God wants me to be. When I obey and listen to him, I walk in the light.
If I cut back on my AA meetings, service work and fellowship, I am walking on dangerous ground. When I miss a few days of Bible study, prayer, and fellowship, I will be more inclined to follow my own desires and not God’s.
I must be diligent in guarding my heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The way to be diligent is to stay in the Word and constant prayer. Praying for his will and obeying exactly what he tells me.
My life is extremely different being held by Jesus instead of the claws of alcohol. The peace and freedom I believed I would find in alcohol I have in Jesus. The shadowy streets I travel are no longer overwhelming. I don’t rely on something outside of me. My trust and strength are found within. What is inside of me is more powerful than what dwells outside of me?
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