There is hope!

I believe this comes Rick Warren:

Higher Power: God can do for us what we have never been able to do for ourselves.
Openness to change: With God’s help, we need to allow our trials to make us better, not bitter.
Power to change: God’s power is great enough to change us and our situation.
Expect to change: Expect God to bring healing, it is one of his promises.

Are you insane?

What is insanity? Here’s a popular definition:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Insanity is continually repeating patterns of thought and behavior knowing they are destructive. They are destroying us and those around us. It is self-defeating behavior, doing wrong things even when we know they are wrong and not doing right things when we know we should.

Why do we keep doing the same old things and end up back in the same old place? Is it a lack of faith in the ability of God to rescue us? It raises the question:

Do I really believe anyone or anything can help me change?

Our insanity can make us feel hopeless. It can take us to despair and depression. We wonder if we can ever change, and some they say they can’t. If you don’t believe you can change, then likely you have an inadequate god and/or you have not surrendered–admitted weakness and powerlessness.

There is hope! The True God–revealed to us in Jesus–is able to change you. He can make you sane and provide you peace, joy, and confidence. He can help you all along the way. He really can.

Prayer

Good Morning God!
You are ushering in another day,
untouched and freshly new.
So here I am to ask you, God,
if You'll renew me too.

Forgive the many errors that I made yesterday
and let me try again dear God
to walk closer in Your way.

But Lord, I am well aware,
I can't make it on my own.
So take my hand and hold it tight,
for I cannot walk alone.

Some Questions

As we consider AA’s Second Step,

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity 

and our “baptized” version of it:

Looking to a Higher Power beyond ourselves, believing that God really cares 

here are some questions to consider:

1. Is God powerful enough to handle the biggest problems in my life?
2. Is God interested enough to handle the smallest concern in my life?
3. Will God respond to all areas of my life if I let him?
4. Will allowing God to run my life result in my ultimate good, i.e., does God really love me?

These questions swerve into areas theologians like to discuss: the transcendence and immanence of God.

In order to answer these questions above, we have to think about a Higher Power or God through creation and revelation, I think. I stand amazed at creation and believe in a Creator. I also believe this Creator has revealed himself through words (Scripture) and ultimately through The Word, Jesus. See John 1:1-14.

What do you believe?

Power made Perfect in Weakness?

It seems like an oxymoron – power coming from and perfected by weakness.

We have a will given to us freely by God, and we talk about willpower. We think by our willpower we can overcome things. And maybe can for a while. But God gives us a will and he wants us to use it to submit to him–admitting powerlessness and weakness, understanding our deep need for mercy and grace.

He gives it, and then we find a new will power–not our own but God’s. It’s divine power to do God’s will through our humble posture of weakness. From that position, we cooperate with God’s Spirit. Galatians 5:13-26 is a good place to think through this idea. Then listen to 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul is wrestling with his “thorn in the flesh.” He asks God to remove it, and the Lord refuses. Paul describes what happened:

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

—2 Corinthians 12

That first step–the admission of weakness and powerlessness–is vital in allowing God to empower us to do his will.

A Picture of Step 1

Step 1: We admit we are powerless over our problems; our lives are unmanageable.

Our pride makes this so difficult, but it is essential. Here is a quick picture of Step 1: the Prodigal Son.

His story is found in Luke 15. I encourage you to go read it. The key part of the story for Step 1 is when he ends up literally in the pig pen. It was about as low as a Jewish boy could go. He certainly did not want to go any lower! As he bottomed out, he was ready to receive help. Look at this:

“He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.”

—Luke 15:16-20

His father received him back with surprising enthusiasm.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

—1 Peter 5:6

12 Steps

Here are the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 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.

Step 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.

Here is how we will present them as we think through them in a relationship with Jesus:

Step One: Admitting weakness, acknowledging powerlessness 
Step Two: Looking to a Higher Power beyond ourselves, believing that God really cares 
Step Three: Surrendering our will and our lives, giving up “playing God,” letting go and letting God 
Step Four: Facing ourselves, examining our lives honestly, growing in self-awareness 
Step Five: Coming clean, sharing honestly with others, asking for feedback 
Step Six: Willingness to change 
Step Seven: Learning to ask, acquiring humility 
Step Eight: Accepting that we have hurt others, becoming willing to make restitution 
Step Nine: Making restitution, taking responsibility for what we have done 
Step Ten: Daily reflection, ongoing self-examination, and self-awareness 
Step Eleven: Prayer and meditation, seeking God’s will 
Step Twelve: Serving others, sharing what we have experienced, passing on the Twelve Step message