Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   January 14                                                    A loving God

   "Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us....  The only suggested
       guidelines are that this Power be loving, caring, and greater than
                                 ourselves."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 24

                           ----=----

   We've been told that we can believe in any kind of Higher Power we want
   as long as it is loving and, of course, greater than ourselves.  Some of
   us, however, have trouble with these requirements.  We either believe in
   nothing but ourselves, or we believe that anything that could be called
   "God" could only be cold-hearted and unreasonable, sending us bad luck
   on a whim.

   Believing in a loving Power is quite a leap for some of us, for many
   reasons.  The thought of turning our will and lives over to the care of
   something we think might hurt us is sure to fill us with reluctance.   If
   we come into the program believing that God is judgmental and unforgiving,
   we must overcome those beliefs before we can be truly comfortable with the
   Third Step.

   Our positive experiences in recovery can help us come to believe in a
   loving God of our own understanding. We've been given relief from a
   disease that has afflicted us for a long time.  We've found the guidance
   and support we need to develop a new way of life.   We've begun to
   experience a fullness of spirit where once there was only emptiness.
   These aspects of our recovery have their source in a loving God, not a
   harsh, hateful one.  And the more we experience recovery, the more we'll
   trust that loving Higher Power.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I will open my mind and my heart to believe that God is
   loving, and trust my loving Higher Power to do for me what I cannot do for
   myself.