In speaking to a friend in recovery recently two things that came up in our conversation;  faith and persistence, especially in our recovery.  Step three tells us that we made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.  That can be a very scary proposition, especially if we have not had God in our lives prior to recovery or we have walked away from Him and down deep, want to establish a relationship once again with the God of our understanding but are unsure of how to do that.

It takes a lot of faith to continue to row the boat across the sea of life when the storms of life seem to be more than we can bear and our rowing seems futile.  I think of the disciples when they were in the boat with Jesus on the Sea of Galilee after Jesus has just taught the people who gathered to hear him on the seashore.  At evening, Jesus said to the disciples, 'Lets go over to the other side.  Jesus already knew that they were going to the other side and that there would be a storm on the journey.  But why go at night?

Does it sometimes seem like we are in the middle of a night time experience when the storms of life hit the hardest?  It's been a wonderful day, but all of a sudden it's night time.   But our loving Heavenly Father wants to take us to the other side, He has already told us 'Lets go over to the other side.' 

Yes our faith is tested and tested heavily.  Do we trust God, do we rely on Him, depend on Him; do we pray for more than just a couple of minutes every day to Him?  Do we have faith that though these heavy trials do come we can rely on the Friend that sticks closer than a brother? 

I wonder if the disciples were hesitant to wake Jesus up during that storm?  After being with Him all day and hearing His words of life and teachings they found themselves rowing with all of their might; trying desperately to row their boat to the other side only to feel like they could not and would not make it  across and maybe even die trying.  And with all of those thoughts going on in their heads; maybe reasoning that they dare not wake the Master and reveal their lack of faith, they realized their complete weakness and total dependence on the only One who could save them; that One was Jesus.

It is in these times too of faith building that we need to persist with the God of our understanding.  We have all heard that scripture 'Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.'  If you study that scripture what it really means is 'Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking.  Does that sound like persistence to you?  Webster defines persistence this way.

We have undertaken the voyage of sobriety; the journey of living clean and sober one day at a time.  We must persist in this undertaking.  I think about the woman who persisted with Jesus for her daughter who had a demonic spirit, take a look.

She not only had faith but she persisted with the God of her understanding Jesus Christ; in spite of her not being a Jew; in spite of her spiritual condition with God.  We need to be like these examples in the Bible, and not only have faith and persistence; but a heart knowledge that without Jesus we are rowing against a storm that we can never win against and maybe die trying to do; and our strength in and of itself, will soon be lost and maybe all desire to continue on in this journey of sobriety, lapsing into the coma of relapse or even insanity or death. 

God wants us to go with Him over to the other side and the reason is because He has work for us to do when we get there.  'Let's go over to the other side.'