"It's a God Thing"
IT IS A GOD THING
This must be a supernatural, “God thing.” In other words, attempting to gain control over our minds without the involvement of the transforming power of God is impossible. Oh sure, we may be able to break a bad habit or two without God…maybe (but extremely difficult). We may be able to slightly modify a few patterns of behavior without the mind of Christ…maybe.
Now get this! The reason it is impossible to completely change our thought processes, emotions, decision-making, and lifestyle is that we are trying to change something by using the same broken mechanism (our hearts/minds/souls) that got us into this predicament in the first place. LOL. We are attempting to fix something that is broken with the same broken instrument. It is a ridiculous assumption to actually suppose that I myself can get me out of this mess when I myself am the one who got me into this mess in the first place!
ONLY GOD can change our basic, fundamental identity or being. Only God can change us on the soul/heart/mind level. It must be a “God thing.” Do not come to me for help unless you want God to be a part of the solution. Because I know…you know…others have discovered, it simply does not work without an outside, powerful Force.
AA
All of us recognize the name AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. It has been around for decades. I did know that part of their recovery program was a dependence on a “Higher Power” – God. The successful alcohol/drug addiction recovery program, as many of you know, has twelve steps. It is amazing though how all twelve steps coincide with God’s call in Scriptures to surrender control and allow Christ to guide our hearts and minds. Here are the twelve steps (AA.org):
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Folks, this is what we, as Christians, are called to do every day of our lives in all areas, just as Step Twelve indicates.
CONCLUSION
We are all “alcoholics” in a sense. By that I mean we are all addicted to something (money, power, pleasure, greed, lust, success, etc.), usually several things, until, that is, our minds and hearts become captivated by the one, true, loving God…until we are delivered from our selfish, self-destructive state of being…until we surrender to the love of God…until we seek God daily and renew our minds in Christ.
Within various multi-step recoveries of our true identity, there are two primary stages: 1. Involves surrendering our own way of seeing, thinking, talking, deciding, and acting, and 2. Involves a welcoming, a seeking of God’s way of seeing, thinking, talking, deciding, and acting.
This must be a supernatural, “God thing.” In other words, attempting to gain control over our minds without the involvement of the transforming power of God is impossible. Oh sure, we may be able to break a bad habit or two without God…maybe (but extremely difficult). We may be able to slightly modify a few patterns of behavior without the mind of Christ…maybe.
Now get this! The reason it is impossible to completely change our thought processes, emotions, decision-making, and lifestyle is that we are trying to change something by using the same broken mechanism (our hearts/minds/souls) that got us into this predicament in the first place. LOL. We are attempting to fix something that is broken with the same broken instrument. It is a ridiculous assumption to actually suppose that I myself can get me out of this mess when I myself am the one who got me into this mess in the first place!
ONLY GOD can change our basic, fundamental identity or being. Only God can change us on the soul/heart/mind level. It must be a “God thing.” Do not come to me for help unless you want God to be a part of the solution. Because I know…you know…others have discovered, it simply does not work without an outside, powerful Force.
AA
All of us recognize the name AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. It has been around for decades. I did know that part of their recovery program was a dependence on a “Higher Power” – God. The successful alcohol/drug addiction recovery program, as many of you know, has twelve steps. It is amazing though how all twelve steps coincide with God’s call in Scriptures to surrender control and allow Christ to guide our hearts and minds. Here are the twelve steps (AA.org):
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Folks, this is what we, as Christians, are called to do every day of our lives in all areas, just as Step Twelve indicates.
CONCLUSION
We are all “alcoholics” in a sense. By that I mean we are all addicted to something (money, power, pleasure, greed, lust, success, etc.), usually several things, until, that is, our minds and hearts become captivated by the one, true, loving God…until we are delivered from our selfish, self-destructive state of being…until we surrender to the love of God…until we seek God daily and renew our minds in Christ.
Within various multi-step recoveries of our true identity, there are two primary stages: 1. Involves surrendering our own way of seeing, thinking, talking, deciding, and acting, and 2. Involves a welcoming, a seeking of God’s way of seeing, thinking, talking, deciding, and acting.
