Answering the Unasked

Answering the Unasked

The Lord’s Prayer suggests we can be led into temptation, which begs the question: Would God lead us into temptation? Having been taught and shown again and again that God is the giver of only good; God’s love for us greater than our love of our children, how could He? Since Living on the Spiritual Basis removes gray areas and contradictions from life, what does this clause really mean?

Living on the Spiritual Basis the temptations of lying, cheating, stealing, etc. have become obvious, the price paid if we transgress clear. Having demonstrated over these base temptations new temptations arise from spiritual pride. The natural desire is to bring the good news we have learned to those still suffering, a noble desire to be sure, but fraught with this new form of temptation. Write this upon your heart in capital letters: DO NOT ANSWER THE UNASKED QUESTIONS.

This is the temptation we are asking God in the Great Prayer to lead us away from. When speaking about spiritual principles we must ask ourselves if we are engaging in attraction or promotion. We will attract those who are ready to learn by our actions, our demonstration of Living on the Spiritual Basis. If we have to sell it, promote it; convince others they should want what we have, then there is something wrong with our spiritual house. Attraction is the true path; promotion opens the door to the temptations of self-glory, self-aggrandizement, a sense of superiority and infallibility, all aspects of spiritual pride. When we consider how many evils have been and are perpetrated by those promoting their beliefs to the extreme, the clause “lead us not into temptation” becomes crystal clear. We must remain ever diligent, and though it may break our heart to refrain, we never enter unbidden into someone’s spiritual house. 
To be clear, the converse is true as well. When someone asks, we must be willing to stand and be counted in the face of any perceived earthly consequence, personal or otherwise, the temptation of self-centered fear denied. So whenever or wherever we are asked to share the Good News we must not shrink, for we have been put to the question and faith requires our answer.

Miracles Of Recovery

Published by Vincent Lee Jones

Silk sheets or city streets, Park Avenue or park bench, addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer of lives. My name is Vincent Lee Jones and I have been in recovery since September 1985. My professional career began when I was nearly 20 years in recovery and was asked to work pro bono with at risk students at Huntington Beach High School. At the time I had developed a reputation within the at large recovery community as an effective communicator and was known to some of the faculty. After the death of two students from prescription drugs I was asked to start working with at risk students, which I did for nearly 5 years. Word of mouth lead to offers of compensated freelance Facilitator and Director positions with numerous local treatment facilities in the ensuing years. As a retired Building Contractor/Designer, working in conjunction with a treatment facility, I created a construction program utilizing a workforce comprised almost exclusively of people new or returning to recovery, helping them to not only learn a trade and start making a living but since many of them had relapsed numerous times, to begin truly building a foundation with real aftercare to live free of active addiction. This program changed many lives. In my 30+ years in recovery I have worked with thousands of individuals from all walks of life, teenagers to the retired, famous to infamous, prosperous to those living hand to mouth, adamant atheists to those embracing strong Religious beliefs; suffering from all manner of intoxicant and behavior-based addictions as well as those who love and care about them, both as a member in recovery Fellowships and as a treatment professional. I can be contacted at 714-366-1725. I write and publish daily a recovery based nondenominational spiritually based blog at https://livinginspirit.blogspot.com with accompanying videos that can be found as well on YouTube and LinkedIn at Vincent Lee Jones.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: