Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   December 4                                          God's will, not ours

    "We know that if we pray for God's will we will receive what is best
                    for us, regardless of what we think."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 46

                           ----=----

   By the time we came to NA, our inner voices had become unreliable and
   self-destructive.  Addiction had warped our desires, our interests, our
   sense of what was best for ourselves.   That's why it's been so
   important in recovery to develop our belief in a Power greater than
   ourselves, something that could provide saner, more reliable guidance than
   our own.  We've begun learning how to rely on this Power's care and to
   trust the inner direction it provides us.

   As with all learning processes, it takes practice to "pray only for
   knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out."  The
   selfish, ego-driven attitudes we developed in our addiction are not cast
   off overnight.  Those attitudes may affect the way we pray.  We may even
   find ourselves praying something like, "Relieve me of this character
   defect so I can look good."

   The more straightforward we are about our own ideas and desires, the
   easier it will be to distinguish between our own will and our Higher
   Power's will.   "Just for your information, God," we might pray,
   "here's what I want in this situation.  Nonetheless, I ask that your
   will, not mine, be done." Once we do this, we are prepared to recognize
   and accept our Higher Power's guidance.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  Higher Power, I've learned to trust your guidance, yet
   I still have my own ideas about how I want to live my life.  Let me share
   those ideas with you, and then let me clearly understand your will for
   me.  In the end, let your will, not mine, be done.