Want to get closer to god, how can i accomplish this?

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I'm in recovery for alcoholism and i have always believed in god and I've always prayed to him as well, i want that connection i hear people talk about at meetings and i often wonder how they do it, i know i have
what it takes to develop that relationship with God that will enhance not
only my life but also my recovery, i don't want to make this post a long drawn out affair i came here for some much needed help / advice i would greatly appreciate it if i could receive such help, i
thank you very much, I'm grateful to you for taking the time in reading this, take care.

Coop

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 9,525 • Replies: 43

Your first error is in feeling that YOU need to come closer to your higher power. That "Higher Power" has been there all along.

If you are in AA, then you may get relief about this issue in making a study of the Serenity Prayer and the 12 steps, especially the first 3. There you learn to hand over everything, including your addiction, to your god. It is meant to be very soothing and comforting to those who suffer.

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@9one1,

Hear Punk, 9,while the apodictical existential pantheist such as my No. 2 son and I suggest you're already as close as it is possible to come

Simply observe practical issues. Get help, maybe
Exercise your will, surely
Simply ration the brew, not as likely but feasible

Incidentally prayer can be effective as a means of rumination. Does God hear you

Of course since you're part of Her

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@PUNKEY,

Punkey - who are you to say I'm in error in feeling closer to my higher power, if i want to get closer to God then its my choice and no one else's, i didn't join this forum to be told I'm In error. Clearly my desire to be closer to him is a sign of gratitude, wouldn't you agree, there is no certain way to reach him and if he was already there then why am i asking to become closer, anyway thanks.

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@9one1,

Is that a bear flag in your avatar? Cool

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@9one1,

If you practice the 12 Steps of AA, you will inevitably come closer to God without any further effort on your part. When I first came into AA almost 18 years ago, I was told by my sponsor that as far as "the God thing" was concerned, it didn't matter if, perhaps, I considered myself an atheist. "Keep practicing the steps in order and by the time you're done, you'll find you're no longer an atheist," he said.

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@9one1,

9one1 wrote:

I'm in recovery for alcoholism and i have always believed in god and I've always prayed to him as well, i want that connection i hear people talk about at meetings and i often wonder how they do it, i know i have
what it takes to develop that relationship with God that will enhance not
only my life but also my recovery, i don't want to make this post a long drawn out affair i came here for some much needed help / advice i would greatly appreciate it if i could receive such help, i
thank you very much, I'm grateful to you for taking the time in reading this, take care.

Coop

0 Replies

@9one1,

9one1 wrote:

I'm in recovery for alcoholism and i have always believed in god and I've always prayed to him as well, i want that connection i hear people talk about at meetings and i often wonder how they do it, i know i have
what it takes to develop that relationship with God that will enhance not
only my life but also my recovery, i don't want to make this post a long drawn out affair i came here for some much needed help / advice i would greatly appreciate it if i could receive such help, i
thank you very much, I'm grateful to you for taking the time in reading this, take care.

Coop

Your post is all about some person called "I"..... I want this, I want That and then proudly boosts That "I" always "believed " in some god or the other... My second eldest and youngest sons one 50 and one 48, who were both alcoholics but now are not.. Perhaps because my farther never had any gods and I never had any gods... my 3 sons never had any gods and my 7 grandchildren haven't any... Perhaps your problem is more the fact that you have some god who you rely on to do the job that "I" wants, is the whole problem.

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@9one1,

Sorry you're getting so many not-helpful replies, 9one1. Religion is a hot button issue around here. Rolling Eyes

I think Lustig gave you the best answer. I would say prayer is your best route. Do you find it easier to pray in a certain place? Many people feel closer to God when they're close to nature. Others find the same inspiration at churches or when helping those less fortunate. It's a very individual thing.

1 Reply

@tenderfoot,

tenderfoot wrote:

... My second eldest and youngest sons one 50 and one 48, who were both alcoholics but now are not.. Perhaps because my farther never had any gods and I never had any gods... my 3 sons never had any gods and my 7 grandchildren haven't any... Perhaps your problem is more the fact that you have some god who you rely on to do the job that "I" wants, is the whole problem.

You obviously don't understand anything about the problem of alcoholism, tender. There is no such things as a "former alcoholic." If your sons were alcoholics 20 years ago, then they are alcoholics today. If they don't drink, they are sober alcoholics. But the disease of alcoholism is like the disease of diabetes -- it may go into remission if the patient is careful about their diet and takes their medication, but the disease is never cured. An alcoholic will die an alcoholic, having been sober and alcohol-free for decades and decades. It is the people who believe that their alcoholism has now been "cured" who are in serious and imminent danger of going out there again and starting right back in drinking. To think one is cured of alcoholism is the most dangerous thought an alcoholic patient can have.

As for God, AA stresses the need for communicating with a god "of your understanding". (Emphasis theirs.) Pushing any particular denomination, be it Christianity or Judaism or Wicca or whatever at an AA meeting is a definite no-no. It is often said that if you wish to choose the light-fixture in your room as your so-called Higher Power, it'll work just as well as anything else, as long as you believe in its efficacy. Point is, it will work.

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@Lustig Andrei,

First of all, good luck finding any statistical facts supporting that 'AA' works, for all that I can find it statistically is no better than an individual quitting on their own. The best I could find is ~5% best case scenario.

After going through the program myself, I'm fully convinced it’s a political scam that’s all about profit.
As for it being deemed a 'Disease' comparable with diabetes- what a crock of ****. It's an addiction- like everything else our consumer lives are built to be. It's a mishandled, mislabeled, and overall misinformed problem stemmed from real world issues. But instead our intellectual stunned society clings to the fallacies spewed from crude prophets who didn't know the difference between a common infection and a mystical curse from the devil.

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@Telamon,

great video with arguments about AA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2YliYttnQ

0 Replies

@9one1,

And since I’m on this damn subject I suppose I should respond to the original inquiry, although I think it will be disregarded by the original poster.

What it takes to ascertain that ‘relationship’ with ‘God’ is self deception and cheating yourself. Insert Sarcasm- Just listen to your inner voice and convince yourself its some kind of “higher power”, or misread signs in life to have “greater meaning”, or go along blindly with the rest of the sheepies (I’ve always found it ironic that sheep is the metaphor they choose for themselves).

All in all, my question is why in the hell do you think you need it?

(and I apologize in advance, I don’t mean to attack you. It just irritates me that people feel the need to look to some imaginary friend for help, especially one as inapt and immorally corrupt as the Christian God, instead of using his damn fellow man and oneself…)

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@Telamon,

Quote:

the need to look to some imaginary friend for help,

But Mon She isn't imaginary at all. Prayer is in a sense Her ruminating, that is, She talking to Herself. If the answers arising from the supplicant's Intuition are valid and prove helpful then prayer is indeed effective

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@Telamon,

Telamon wrote:

First of all, good luck finding any statistical facts supporting that 'AA' works, for all that I can find it statistically is no better than an individual quitting on their own. The best I could find is ~5% best case scenario.

If that. Irrelevant. The point is that a real alcoholic cannot quit by oneself. He/she needs the crutch of something like A.A. Statistics has nothing to do with ti. These days about three-quarters of the people you see at A.A. meetings are there because some judge decided that would be a part of their DUI rehab program. It's not going to work. Nor is it ever going to work for someone who goes to A.A. thinking it'll give him information on how to drink responsibly. No way A.A. is goin to help any of those people, nor does it make any claims of being able to do so.

Quote:

After going through the program myself, I'm fully convinced it’s a political scam that’s all about profit.

Profit? Who profits? There are no dues or fees for A.A. At meeting the hat is passed and it's up to you whether you want to drop some loose change in there. A person could go to meeting seven days a week for the rest of his life, drink free coffee, and never contribute a cent. There are those who do. To claim that A.A. is somehow "about profit" isabout the dumbest thing you could possibly have said.

Quote:

As for it being deemed a 'Disease' comparable with diabetes- what a crock of ****.

So the U.S.Surgeon General's office is full of ****? It defined alcoholism as a disease back around 1958 or thhereabouts.

Quote:

It's an addiction- like everything else our consumer lives are built to be.

Fyi, most drug addictions are also considered to be diseases -- mental diseases -- by most health-care professionals, againn including the Surgeon General's office.

Quote:

It's a mishandled, mislabeled, and overall misinformed problem stemmed from real world issues. But instead our intellectual stunned society clings to the fallacies spewed from crude prophets who didn't know the difference between a common infection and a mystical curse from the devil.

I don't recall that anyone but you has so far mentioned "the devil." Those last two sentences of yours make no sense whatever.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

a real alcoholic cannot quit by oneself

I understand what you mean by that Andy but isn't it a tautology redefining the term

That is, you seem to assert that one recovered from the addiction on his own couldn't have been called alcoholic

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

You're making it more complicated than necessary, dale. What I'm saying, in essence, is that one who apparently recovered from an(y) addiction on one's own, called on Her for help, whether consciously or subliminally.

1 Reply

@9one1,

Quote:

i didn't join this forum to be told I'm In error.

Well what did you expect? You post on an open forum like this and you're going to get a variety of viewpoints. Suck it up. You're lucky a whole lot of people like me can't be bothered pointing out how you're 'in error' believing in mythical beings in the first place.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

You're making it more complicated than necessary, dale.

Alas it's my wont

Quote:

What I'm saying, in essence, is that one who apparently recovered from an(y) addiction on one's own, called on Her for help, whether consciously or subliminally.

Much abstract truth to that though i"m sure the dedicated atheist might vehemently disagree

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

You're right, of course, dale, but I think you'll find that truly dedicated atheists have a lot of unnecessary trouble recovering from anything because they've somehow convinced themselves that they can do it all by themselves. They can't. But they don't know it. And neither you nor I will ever convince them otherwise.

One reason why the A.A.program works for open-minded people -- sometimes even for atheists -- is that it doesn't push any specific theology or orthodoxy. It doesn't even ask for a commitment of belief from its members, merely a "willingness to believe". It claims it is in no sense a religious program but, rather, a spiritual one. The difference may seem very subtle to anyone unwilling to give it much thought.

2 Replies

Want to get closer to god, how can i accomplish this?

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