Nothing Can Separate the Believer from Christ's Light or Love

It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. . .For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die. (AA, pg. 66)

 Many of the people whom I ran into in AA meetings turned out to be some of the most bitter people I had ever met. They could not drink anymore, but their lives had not turned out for the better.

For a long time, I struggled with the upset and unrest in my life. Unbelievable yet true, people still had the power to dominate people like me. I found that my feelings were still easily hurt. The AA program teaches members that they have to something about their resentments and fears, or else they will drink again.

For me, I found that the more I tried to do something about my resentments, the more resentful I became. In trying not to “harbor such feelings”, I encountered more of them mooring in my life.

I am now convinced that the reason why I was so skittish, so easily upset is that I had fallen for the lie written on page 66, that our feelings, our unrest somehow cuts us off from the "sunlight of the Spirit."

God is Light (1 John 1:5), and Jesus Christ is the Light of the World (John 8: 12).

Jesus declared that He was the Light of the world the moment that he refuted the shame of the Pharisees and rescued the woman caught in the act of adultery.

"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more" (John 8: 11).

We can receive this gift of no condemnation because Jesus became sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21), an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9: 24) which we can  never lose, because we never earned it. When we receive, and keep receiving, this gift of righteousness (Romans 5: 17), then we renew our minds to this truth: that we are in His Light:

“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1 Thessalonians 5: 5)

John describes the blessed goodness of the Light of God:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

Walking in the light has nothing to do with what a believer does, but what Jesus has done. Even when we sin in our bodies, God’s grace is greater (Romans 5: 20), and His goodness keeps leading us to repentance (Romans 2: 4) In Christ, every believer has fellowship with one another, and His blood Jesus cleanses us (right now!) from all sin.

Therefore, any emotional upsets in our lives cannot separate us from the “sunlight of the Spirit”. Instead of looking at our thoughts and feelings, let us rest in the righteousness that Christ has made us through His death and resurrection.

God is Light (1 John 1: 5) and Love (1 John 4:16). Paul thundered that nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8: 37-39) The greater our revelation of God's love for us, forever assigned to us by Jesus' death on the Cross and resurrection to the right hand of God the Father (1 John 4: 10), the greater His life will work in us to do all that He wills for us to do:

We walk worthy of this calling in love -- not our love, but God's love. (Ephesians 4: 1-2)

John explains it succinctly:

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4: 19)

AA teaches members that they have to watch out for bad feelings and then do good things. The Word of God teaches us to abide in Christ’s love (John 15: 9), and His love empowers us to do good.

Forget the Twelve Steps -- believe on Him whom the Father has sent (John 6: 29), and as Christ Jesus lives through you, you will reign more than conquerors over every hurt, habit, hang-up, and hankering of the flesh.