AA Big Book

There are a lot of resources available for our journey of purity and healing. The Bible is the ultimate authority, but God graciously allows us to glean insights and hope from the people He has healed and continues to "carry on to completion." The AA Big book is one of those resources. It is a book of life experiences, based on Scriptural principles that has helped hundreds of thousands of people find direction and hope in their "messes."

As Dr. Mark Laaser says in The 7 Principles of Highly Accountable Men about AA and other support groups for people with "hang ups," 

The great thing about support groups for various problems, such as addictions, is that you don’t have to succeed at anything to be chosen for them. Instead, you need to have failed at something.

You don't have to go with a mask on. Just like at church, I am sure a lot of people try to keep their masks on and fail to get real and transparent, which hinders their "sobriety" and healing. I hid for YEARS. I now finally free to admit I don't have it all together and that I have to trust in Christ for my strength and hope DAILY. I'm no better than anyone else. I am blessed and have experienced first hand God's amazing grace. 

I found this quote online about the AA big book and it's "promises." May it encourage you to keep in the fight. God is with you, for you and is holding "all things together." His grace is sufficient.

 The Promises

(From pages 83-84 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.

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Galatians 6:9, (NIV)

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.