Sayings
 

I keep getting the phrase "Faith without works is dead" in my mind. I heard it in a Tyler Perry movie/play (insert eye roll here), although a Google search tells me it is part of the AA literature.

It is synonymous to me with: "Wanting to stop drinking without a plan is dead." The number one thing I have learned from SR is the need for a plan. Without it, you wake up every day swearing it off and somehow with a beer in your hand 12 hrs later. That rollercoaster is the definition of insanity and hell, and I want off for good. I pray for everyone going through it that we get off and stay off

I share your prayers for all of us as well.

Faith without works in the AA context was explained to Bill by Ebby thus: "Unless a man continued to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through self sacrifice and servce to others, he could not surviv the certain trials and low spots ahead".

It means it can be easy to stay stopped while life is peachy, but, unless you get busy helping others, when something bad happens you will likely turn to your old solution. I've seen this proved over and over, both ways.

I agree having a plan helps anyone who is sober & in recovery

that phrase go back further than aa- its in the bible, but even then can be related to getting sober
James 2:14-26
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[a] works, and I will show you my faith by my[b] works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?[c] 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[d] And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

that was pretty complicated stuff right there, but put simply to me:
say you want to get sober and have faith you can, but continue to hang around wet places and wet faces and not do anything to change you- continue the same behaviors and actions- and youll end up drunk.

that made sense i i proved it true many times.

I like to keep it simple.

I can have faith that the program of recovery works (in my case the application of the 12 steps of NA). In a very real sense this is step 2 for me.

However, if I don't actually apply that program of recovery on a daily basis (implied by step three), then I won't have any benefits of the program I believe in but refuse to engage in.