Title: Not Because of Us

 Dear Reader, 

This morning I found myself reflecting on a passage from Deuteronomy 9:4-6. 

Quote:  

When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness. 

 

It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. 

End Quote 

 

The message is direct.  It is also not easy to accept. 

 

Don’t say in your heart, “I got here because I was righteous.”  

 

The hard truth is that as our life starts to come together—especially in recovery—Grace has more to do with it than we openly admit.  

 

When humbly looking back we can see Grace at work: 

• Things begin to settle. 

• We make better choices. 

• We start to feel some peace. 

• Opportunities show up. 

• We stop living a life of self-will while moving closer to one based on His will. 

 

A life not because of our doing or because we have figured it out, but because our Higher Power (God / Christ / Jehova) has formed a partnership with us and met us there, based on living sober one day at a time. 

 

To the Israelites, this was the daily mana.  

To us a "Daily Reprieve." 

 

Let us remember the strength we needed; we didn’t create it. 

Even the willingness to change showed up before we fully understood it. 

Grace Makes Sense of It 

The words in Ephesians 2 confirm this as well.  

"you are no longer foreigners and outsiders but citizens together with God's people and members of God's family. You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone." 

Maybe the point is this: We’re not building something from nothing. We’re walking into something that’s already been prepared. When we admit that "GOD is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves" we form a partnership that is unbreakable.   And that’s enough. 

Amen