Trusting God

Trust God.

This was the first part of a prescription given by a doctor back in the 30s as a guide to those who might want to get sober. (The other two parts were “clean house” and “help others.”)

But what does it mean to those of us in recovery, this "trust God" thing?

For this recovering alcoholic, it's pretty simple. To me it means that no matter what's going on in the world I must trust that it's God's will.  In step three of the 12 step programs we made a decision to "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him." That’s where I began "trusting God.”

I usually got in difficulty when I’d confuse my will with God's will. My will got me in trouble many times. My will caused me to use drugs to the point where I ended up incapacitated and incarcerated. My will resulted in broken relationships and lost friendships. There's a trail of devastation leading back to my youth, carved out by self-will.

I must remember that when I'm in fear or confused about what's going on I must simply be patient. Eventually, God's will is revealed. Even though I may be baffled about what's going on and have no idea about God's plan I must wait.

In my 21 plus years of sobriety I’ve been blessed so many times with the right people and the right situations that I not only trust God – I depend upon him.

Sometimes I get impatient with His timing. Then later I realize that – once again – my impatience would have made a mess of everything.