IS it Better to Give?

Give

Principle 8: Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.

“Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.” (Matthew 5:10)

Step 12: Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1)


I think that if God had to choose his favorite principle, He would choose Principle 8
Why do I think Principle 8 is God’s favorite? Because it is putting our faith into action. God’s Word tells us in James 2:17,“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Active faith is important to God!
Don’t get me wrong, works are not going to save you. Only faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior can do that. It is through our actions, however, that we demonstrate to God and others the commitment we have to our faith in Jesus Christ.

We know how addicting sin can be. I know that when I came to the end of my rope about 8 years ago... Looking back, I was so blessed to have a place to go. So blessed that I had a Christian sponsor. A man who was working his step 12.

Step 12,is the “carrying the message” step, the “giving back” step.
What is “giving back” all about? What does it truly mean to give?
To answer that question, I did a word study on the meaning of “give” or “giving.” In the New Testament, the word “give” has seventeen different Hebrew words with seventeen different meanings. I thought you would find it interesting for me to do a thirty-minute rant on each of the uses of the word “give.” Just kidding!
Perhaps we’ll take a more practical look at the meaning of the word “give” as it relates to Principle 8, since that’s what this principle is really all about.
Principle 8 does not tell us to give in unhealthy ways, ways that would hurt us or cause us to relapse into our codependent behaviors. No, Principle 8 is talking about healthy, non-codependent giving of oneself without the slightest trace of expecting to receive back. Remember, no person has ever been honored for what they have received. Honor has always been a reward for what someone gave.
Matthew 10:8 sums up Principle 8: “Freely you have received, freely give.”
In Principle 8, we yield ourselves to be used by God to bring this good news to others, both by our example and our words.

This is why we are here every Tuesday night, to freely give

When you place God first in your life, you realize that everything you have is a gift from Him. You realize that your recovery is not dependent or based on material things, it is built upon your faith and your desire to follow Jesus Christ’s direction.
Romans 8:32 (GNB) says that God “did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things?”
We are never more like God than when we give—not just money or things but our very selves. That’s what Jesus did for us. He gave us the greatest gift of all—Himself.

None of the steps or principles begin with the word “I.” The very first word in Step 1 is “we.” In fact, the word we appears in the 12 Steps fourteen times. The word “I” never appears even once in any of the 12 Steps. The road to recovery is not meant to be traveled alone. This is not a program to be worked in isolation.


Deuteronomy 11:2 tells us to remember what we’ve learned about the Lord through our experiences with Him. We start off by saying, “This is how it was for me; this is the experience of what happened to me. This is how I gained the strength to begin my recovery, and there’s hope for you.”

Second Corinthians 1:3 (GNB) encourages us to “give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes! He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.”

All the pain, all the hurt that my twenty-eight years of abusing drugs caused, all the destruction that I caused to myself and those I loved, finally made sense when I got to Principle 8. I finally understood Romans 8:28 (TLB): “We know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.”
He called me according to His plans, and because I answered God’s call, I can stand here as an example that God works all things for good according to His purpose.
To God be the glory!
I want to spend the rest of my life doing recovery work. You know, though, it’s not really work. It’s service, a service of joy.

There is nothing more gratifying than sharing this with others. This is what gets me out of bed in the morning... the fact that there are many folks that still need recovery...and not just from drugs and alcohol... from the pain they might have caused others in many ways for many reasons.

No one is immune from sin.