“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Two 

“Came to believe that Jesus Christ could restore us to sanity.” 

The idea of being restored to sanity is a very sensitive issue. Even people who have been in recovery for a while gulp on this one occasionally.  Defensively we say, “I am not insane.” If we take this rigid posture, it may keep us from doing this step and experiencing the benefits that flow from thoroughly working all the steps.

In former times, insanity was related to somebody as a raving lunatic bound up in a straight jacket.  There may be a few of us who fit into this category.  However, most of us see ourselves as fairly rational people.  We are able to discern the important aspects of reality.

We tend to see things through the filter of our past problems and have a distorted picture of what is happening around us.    These distortions caused us to guess wrong about our circumstances. Then we make wrong decisions about how to respond and reap the negative consequences.

We keep having problems and our lives get worse and we don’t know why or what we are doing to bring undesired results.  Insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.  Insanity is also escaping reality into an addictive substance or behavior. This is more of the kind of insanity we refer to in recovery.

We are able to identify our problems when we go to meetings and listen to others with similar backgrounds.  We are able to identify with the problems and then eventually able to believe there is hope for us too.  We hear how other people applied these spiritual principles to their live and how they got better.

Through listening to others, we learned how others were touched by God and their minds were renewed.  Our thinking was changed and our feelings changed.  Then our actions changed and we benefited by improved results.

This second step is one of obtaining hope.  It is coming to believe that the Lord will do for us what He did for others.  As we hear the stories of others, we find that they were as bad if not worse than us.  We have to conclude that if God helped then, He will help me.

We can’t sit around and hear the many personal testimonies of how the Lord healed and changed lives without coming to believe that this stuff is real.  God is real and that there are many people just like us who are walking miracles ? alive and happy by the grace of God.

We can’t hang around recovery very long without noticing the overwhelming evidence of the Lord’s redemptive love and healing power!  Millions of otherwise hopeless lives have been transformed through applying these spiritual principles as outlined in the Twelve Steps.

Apart from God’s healing grace, there is no program and there is no recovery.  This second step is one of acquiring faith.  A key part of this step is the willingness to listen to others.  We need to listen to others with a sense of expectancy that they have something important to say.  Listen with an expectancy that God will speak to us through even the least likely person.

Few people were healed in Jesus’ home town because of their unbelief.  Scripture says “He healed them all” in referring to the ministry of Jesus traveling from place to place.   “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23)  Believe!

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Three 

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the Lord.” 

This is perhaps the most important step.  If we get this one right, then everything else flows from it.  It means that we never have to be alone again.  It means that we don’t have to work the other steps depending on our own strength, wisdom and courage.  The Lord himself will empower us in all else that needs to be done as we continue to yield to Him. 

This step requires making an important decision.   Other than the decision for salvation, this is the most important choice of our lives.  This is a choice to totally surrender our lives to Jesus Christ who indwells our lives through the person of the Holy Spirit.   “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” (Romans 12:1) 

Step three is deciding to quit managing our own lives and giving up all of our rights.  We give up our rights to what we are going to be doing, whom we are going to be doing it with and where we are going to do it.  It means that Jesus will make the decisions about where we go, what we do, whom we do it with and what we have.  To turn our will over is to turn our “chooser” over and that means future choices are no longer ours.  We then have a new manager and director. 

Growing up in church and inviting Jesus into our lives does not mean that we have taken this step and can skip over it lightly.  Jesus may have been resident, but not president.  Surrender has meaning and results in relation to the sincerity and the scope of the yieldedness.  The Lord won’t force us to submit to His loving plan for our lives. 

We have to take the step of faith and give Him a chance to prove Himself faithful.  Many of us have screwed our lives up so much – that almost no risk or faith is required to give the Lord an opportunity to show what He can do when He is given total control. 

Most of us thought of God as being “out there” some place as general overseer of the world.  This step reveals the spiritual principle that the Lord has willed a plan for our lives.  “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)   We give up our will for His will. 

He also wants to care for us as we turn ours lives and will over to the care of God.  “Cast all of your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.”  (1 Peter 5:7)  The Lord really wants to take care of us, but we need to give Him permission and cooperate. 

The reason we haven’t seen the evidence of God’s care before this time may be as a result of rebellion. We have previously refused to totally yield to His control and to His plan. 

 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus

 to do good works, which God prepared in advance  for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) 

God has a plan!  We are perfectly equipped to carry out God’s plan because when He made us He made the plan and the two match perfectly.  His plan is better than any we could ever come up with for ourselves.  Our own plans end in destruction.  His plan is for our highest and best good. 

Making a decision means doing business with God.  Talking or thinking about making a decision is not doing it.  We have to actually do it!  We can pray something like:  “Dear Lord, right now by an act of my will I totally surrender to you.  I give up all my rights, plans, hopes and dreams.  I surrender to your full control from this day forth.  Relieve me from bondage to self and deal with my life as you see fit.”

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Four 

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our selves.” 

Before this step, most of our efforts were in the thinking process.  This is where we get a chance for some real action in the physical realm.  This step requires writing down the stories of our lives.  We write the good and the bad. 

The actual work of this step may only take several hours, but often the real work is in working up the courage to do it.  That is why it is called a fearless moral inventory.  It takes courage to put into writing the bad and embarrassing areas of our lives. 

There may be a number of obstacles in our minds to keep us from swinging into action on this step.  Some fear having to share the information as is suggested in a future step.  We need to take this step as if no other person is ever going to see what we write.  We need to take one step at a time at this point. 

Maybe we did something illegal or so embarrassing that we are worried that someone will find the writing and know what we did and we will get in trouble.  If necessary, we can write these things down in a code that is only understood by ourselves. 

This step is for our benefit.  It is not a frivolous exercise to give us some busy work to do.  We yield to the Lord and begin to write.  There is a great healing that takes place simply from the garbage flowing from our minds onto a piece of paper. 

As we write, things appear on paper that we didn’t realize were inside us.  The Lord prompts us in this effort and we begin to see behavior patterns for the first time.  Some have realized such immediate help from this step that they said, “It was like poison flowing right out of me onto the sheet of paper.” 

Another fear in writing a moral inventory is looking at things we did in the past that may stir up painful guilt.  Maybe there is a concern that we will stir up painful hurts from what others have done to us.   These things from the past may seem too painful to bear and we would rather just keep them buried.  We can’t stir what is not there.  Time does not heal all wounds.  Jesus does! 

Keeping things buried got us in much of the trouble we got into.  In recovery we learn that the problems of the past continue to deal with us in a negative way until we face up to them.  We need to own up to the truth and resolve the issues.  When we resolve these issues in recovery, we can put them behind us in a way that they won’t hurt or control us any more. 

There is a saying in recovery that, “We are only as sick as our secrets.”   As we get out the things that have been stuffed inside for many years it allows us room to breathe.  We can begin to relax a little bit and face the truth head on.  “The truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) 

Some people get hung up about where to start for fear that they will get everything out of order and messed up.  If we have this concern, writing the events of our lives on a 3×5 card could be a help.  This way we can rearrange the cards in chronological order if we are worried about having events in sequence.  Another advantage of the card method is that we can carry around some blank ones and write as things come to mind and time permits. 

One suggestion is to write about every significant thing in our lives.  When we write of what went wrong, we can add how it affected us and what we may have done to bring it about.  Just do it!

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Five 

“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” 

A part of doing step five is taking a good look at what we wrote in step four.  We have been hiding some of this stuff from ourselves all of our lives.  Now, we must muster up the courage and face the truth as we look at our past.  We must be as objective as possible. 

We look at everything we wrote and we begin to see patterns and things that we never knew were a part of our lives.  This may cause some pain as we get an overview of our lives from an angle that we never saw before.  We have to be careful here not to beat ourselves up. 

Seeing what we wrote down in this new light can act as an obstacle to continuing on in our program of recovery.  We may be tempted to say to ourselves, “This is some ugly stuff here, I can’t share it with another person because they will think terrible things about me.” 

Sometimes the only thing that keeps us from completing step four is our fear of doing the fifth step.  It’s tempting to piddle around in trying to get our writing step four “perfect” before doing step five.  We use it as an excuse to not get on with our program.  We must muster up all the courage that we can and press on because it is the only way we can get better. 

Another trap that we can fall into is the familiar attitude that, “I don’t have to share these things with another person – I only need to confess to God to be forgiven.”  We don’t have to debate that point.  What we are talking about here is that special healing that takes place when we confess our sins to another human  being.  “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other and be healed.”  (James 5:16) 

It’s next to impossible to feel accepted, forgiven and loved by God when we have never experienced that with another human being.  Other people can’t love us if they don’t know us.  They can only love who they think we are or who we are pretending to be like.  Get Real! 

As is clearly documented by the above Bible verse, this principle was not devised by people it was ordained by God Himself.  When we are ready to take this step, the Lord will provide the exact right person to hear our stories.  We need to be prayerful about this matter and the Lord will lead us to the right person to share our inventories. 

We want to be courageous, but we do want to exercise caution to share our information with a responsible individual.  This person might be a priest, minister, pastor, professional counselor, trusted friend or a “recovery sponsor.”  A sponsor is somebody that has more experience in recovery than we do and has agreed to help us work the steps. 

To our surprise the person who hears our story, does not judge us.  They may have done similar things.  We were able to get out those secrets that we thought we would be saddled with to the grave.  We do this step prayerfully with another person in the presence of God.  This is a holy time and a healing time.  It is a time that we need to be willing to receive God’s forgiveness and rest in that assurance. 

We are only as sick as our secrets.  After taking this step we have fewer secrets and less sickness.  We are different and we feel different.  Some of us have felt such overwhelming love, forgiveness and freedom that we didn’t know how to handle it.  This is also a vulnerable time.  We may want to schedule a quiet place to go and have communion and meditation with the Lord.

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Six 

“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” 

This step separates those who are serious about recovery from those who are playing games.  At first glance, it appears to be the easiest step and maybe it can be dispensed within just a few moments.  Not so!  This stage doesn’t require us to take any action as such. We don’t even have to make the actual decision as outlined in the next step.  We “just” have to become ready.

We have already surrendered our lives generally in step three.  Perhaps the major problems like drunkenness have already been lifted from us as a result of the work we have done so far.  However, we now have a list of specific things in our lives that are out of order and we need to decide what to do about them.

This list of character defects (or sins if you prefer) is those areas in our lives of which we are still in control.  We are our own gods in these areas and we need to become willing to turn them over to the care of the Lord.  The list could include pride, lust, laziness, greed, envy, gluttony, anger and self righteousness.

Our specific defects could include over?working, over?eating, gambling, lying, grandiosity, manipulating and other obsessions.  The Lord requires our ongoing cooperation by us being willing to let these things go.

This step requires a degree of faith.  Why go through the effort of being willing to have our lives completely overhauled if nothing is really going to happen?  The answer is that God has proved Himself by making things happen for others.  We are not so unique or bad that we are beyond the Lord’s ability to transform.

Another concern that we might have is that if we let these things go what will be left?  Some of us wallowed in our character defects so much that they became a big part of who we were or who we thought we were.  Some of us “reveled” in our badness.  If we let this stuff go what will there be left?  The answer is the beautiful creation that the Lord intended us to be.

The thought of taking a step to put these things behind us could easily invoke the grieving process.  Even though these things caused pain and suffering in our lives, they were very familiar to us and it hurts a little to let them go.  It is still a loss even if it is a loss of who we thought we were.

That’s the bad news.  The good news is that this is an important step in obtaining in actuality who we really are.  How many of us have pondered the question, “Who am I and what am I doing here?”  This is an important step in giving God permission to reveal the real us.

King David was a man after God’s own heart, but he was steeped in defects of character including murder and adultery.  None of us have committed an offense greater than this Old Testament king.  If there is hope for him there is hope for us.  King David went on to pen:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

God loved King David and restored him.  He Loves us and will heal our lives if we do our part!

Our part is to yield and cooperate.  His part is to do the “transforming.” (Romans 12:2)

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Seven 

“Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” 

Now it is time to swing into action again.  The key word in this step is humility.  Humility is something most of us had very little of before entering into recovery.  Self-centered fear is what fueled our addiction and shortcomings.

Self-sufficiency and self reliance are at the foundation of the things that are out of order in our lives.  This concept of humility chops right at the roots of our problems and moves us toward reliance on the Lord instead of self.

Our shortcomings are those character defects that keep us from being in a right relationship with God and a right relationship with our fellow human beings.  They have served to give us some short term pleasure here and there in exchange for long term problems.

Now is the time to take the step of faith required to get rid of them with a sense of expectancy that the Lord will take them away.  Doing this step is moving out in faith to receive our healing.  Many people don’t believe in faith healing.  Here we must be willing to believe.  God’s Word promises healing in response to our humility:

“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive them their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

We also have to admit that we are without the power or ability to change our own lives and become willing to let God do for us what we could not do for ourselves.  This means actually letting go of control in these specific areas that we have identified.

Even though giving this stuff up is like giving up poison that has hurt us, it still requires an amount of courage to take this step.  It will help if we remember that God is all-loving and His plan for our lives is for our highest and best good.  He won’t take anything away without putting something better in its place.

It would be good to plan a quiet place where we can be alone to take this step.  We might want to even pray before we start that the Lord will guide and direct us as we walk through this.  Then, it might be a good idea to review the list of shortcomings.

Now is a good time to get down on our knees and pray with all the earnestness and faith that we can muster.  We can say whatever words we want as long as they don’t water down the intent of this step.  We can pray something like:

“Dear Lord, I come to you in the name of Jesus and I admit that I have all these faults.  I know that I can’t remove them myself or change my own life, but you are able to heal any  problem and forgive every sin.  Please forgive all these sins and take away anything from my life that is displeasing to you.  Take away anything and everything that keeps me from being in a right relationship with you and others.  Take away everything that acts as an obstacle of my being used as an instrument of your peace and righteousness.  Deal with my life as is pleasing in your sight and I believe by faith that you will.  In Jesus name.  Amen.” Many of us were amazed at how our lives began to change for the better.  Praise the Lord!

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Eight 

“Made a list of all people we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.” 

One of the things that might help in doing this step is to take a look at our fourth step inventory of the people who harmed us.  Most often, we harmed them back in some way.  Maybe we even did some things that encouraged them to do us wrong in the first place. 

We realize some people were victims in certain circumstances such as rape.  We are not suggesting here that somebody should feel guilty about this and engage in introspection as to what they did wrong.  This would only add more injury to an innocent victim. 

In fact, the purpose of this step is not to make us feel guilty about anything.  It is simply to make a list and is part of the ground work for doing the next step.  Perhaps these steps could have been combined.  However, the dynamics that we’re dealing with in these steps are so intense it is better for us that they are split up. 

We need to take this step all by itself to insure that we do it right.  We don’t need to worry about the next step of having to actually make amends.  If we do both steps together, we may leave out some important items on our list for fear of approaching these people to apologize. 

The idea here is to put everybody on the list that we can possibly think of that we may have harmed in some way.  This doesn’t mean that we will have to make amends to everybody on the list.  It does mean that we have to become willing.  We can’t be willing if we refuse to make a thorough list. 

Becoming willing to make amends doesn’t mean that we dart off and approach everybody we think we harmed.  It means that we are willing to make amends to anybody and at any time the Lord leads us and gives us the opportunity. 

One of the first things we think of in making such a list is to rationalize our actions based on what other people did to us.  We may not be willing to make amends because another hurt us deeply and in the world economy of things we are tempted to say, “They should be making amends to me.” 

No place in these steps does it say they have to make amends to us.  These steps are for our healing and spiritual growth.  We can’t force others to accept the principles of this program.  We can do what we need to do to get better.  It is in working these next couple of steps that we enter into a new freedom and come to know peace. 

As a result of becoming willing to make amends to them all, we can walk through life with our head held high.  We won’t have to worry about who we will run into for fear that it will be an awkward moment.  When we become willing, the battle has already been won in our minds. 

A big part of willingness is forgiveness.  We have to forgive all others the harm they did to us.  If we don’t reconcile this issue we will hold a resentment that will keep us from being willing to clean out our own house.  Forgiveness is simply a decision we make before God to not hold another accountable for the harm done to us.  This is also required by Scripture: 

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not  condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:17)

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Nine 

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” 

This is another step that takes courage.  It means facing some people we might never want to deal with again except that we are involved in a program of recovery.  This step is necessary for us to get better and to get on with our lives.  This step is the last big action step in putting our past behind us so that we can get on with our present and future. 

We don’t go off half cocked  and charging ahead on this step without due thought and prayer. This step takes wisdom, discernment and timing.  With our best and enthusiastic intention, we can harm others even more if we don’t approach this process in a responsible manner.  We don’t want to end up making amends for the mistakes we made in making amends. 

There are certain amends that we can go forward and correct on an immediate basis and as the Lord provides the opportunity.  Those are our financial debts.  As money becomes available to meet our past financial obligations we can pay these debts without too much worry that we will hurt someone’s feelings. 

However, if it was a financial debt that involved some illegal activity or to a party that may do us or another harm, we may want to consider approaching the issue in some safe way.  If it was some shady business deal that might implicate another in our attempt to clean up our act, we need to check our motives and thoroughly consider our approach. 

Maybe our amends involves a destructive relationship from our past.  We need to consider them at this point, and their welfare.  A letter might do a better job than a personal visit in this case.  No communication with the individual at all might be the right thing, especially if it would cause them a problem with a current spouse, lover or friend. 

If we run into a situation where we can’t make direct amends without doing further harm to another, we may want to write a letter to them and not mail it.  We can discard of the letter after we have sincerely expressed our regrets in writing.  We can also do this by using the “empty chair” method.  We picture in our minds the person who we are making amends to be sitting in an empty chair and speak the words that are necessary to bring closure to the matter. 

There may have been some people we have harmed in some way that have passed away or moved to an unknown location.  In these cases we will have no choice but to use an alternate method of making amends. 

The main point is that we make amends wherever possible and that we are willing to do so.  If we are willing to make amends and it is not possible to do so at this time, that means that it is God’s will that we do it at a different time.  The Lord doesn’t lead us to do the impossible. 

The Lord will provide us the opportunity to make things right according to His perfect timing.  If we have surrendered to the Lord and continue to yield to Him on a daily basis, He will order our steps in the amends process.   “God shall supply all of your needs.” (Philippians 4:19)

Jesus makes it clear that if we are going to be right with Him, we have to get right with others: 

“Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”  (Matthew 5:23?24)

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Ten

“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” 

Having completed the first nine steps we have entered into a new and higher realm of freedom and we have come to experience happiness – perhaps better than we have ever known it. These next three steps are called maintenance steps designed to hold onto what we have and steadily improve on that foundation. 

This step ten calls us to take an ongoing personal inventory.  Now that we have that huge pile of garbage out of our lives, we want to keep it out.  A daily inventory is the best way to keep short accounts and insure we don’t accumulate a little excess baggage here and there and get weighted down with a big pile again. 

If we are not vigilant, those little things can add up to a lot and steal our peace, joy and new? found freedom.  It doesn’t take any effort at all to slip back to our old way of doing things.  Negative thinking and attitudes toward others can creep back in without our even knowing about it.  We need to make a special effort to be on the lookout and guard this serenity the Lord has given us by His grace. 

It is suggested that we take this inventory on a daily basis.  A good time to do this is when we say our prayers in the evening before going to sleep.  A good way to end the day is to give God thanks for all that He has provided.  We surrender in the morning and thank Him in the evening.

This daily inventory can be a daily “garbage detector.” 

After our praising and thanking the Lord for His blessings in general, it is a good time to review the specific things that made up our day.  Did we contribute to something going wrong?  Did we get angry?  Did we fail to unconditionally love the people  the Lord put before us?  Were we impatient or self righteous?  Did something happen to cause us to lose our peace or joy? 

Did we fail to do what the Lord was leading us to do?  If the answer is yes to any of these questions, we can ask for God’s forgiveness and take whatever steps are necessary to correct the situation.  If what we need to do is to forgive another for harming us in some way, then we simply do it and put it behind us. 

When taking our daily inventory, if we come across an instance where we harmed another, we make it right at our earliest opportunity and as the Lord leads.  The advantage of doing this inventory often is obvious.  It means that we don’t have to carry the negative feelings around for a long time and experience the prolonged discomfort that goes with it. 

The Lord will reveal those things in our life that were our of order.  The Holy Spirit will convict us during this reflective time, if we were too busy to hear  during the press of the day’s activities. 

“I will hear what the Lord will speak.  For he will speak peace to his people and His saints; But let them not turn back to folly.  Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.” (Psalm 85:8?9) 

Another important part of our inventory is our conscious contact with the Lord.  Did we practice His presence?  Did we walk humbly with Him by faith, believing that He was providentially working out the circumstances of our lives?  Did we believe that he was giving us the wisdom, strength and love to accomplish what He puts before us this day?

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Eleven 

“Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Lord, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” 

This is a program of daily surrender.  We take one day at a time.  We can’t live in the past for it is gone and the future is not here yet.  We only have this present day to live.  The Lord gives us a daily reprieve from a life of self-propelled destruction as we yield to Him. 

The first part of this is prayer and meditation to establish and improve our connection with the Lord.  Jesus taught His disciples to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  It was meant to be a daily provision and a daily prayer.  Clearly here the Lord wants us to approach Him on a daily basis to request Him to supply our need for the day. 

God wants us to meet with Him in the morning and walk with Him during the whole day.  Can we imagine going on a trip and not gathering the needed food and other supplies in advance?  That’s what we do when we start our day without getting plugged into God, who is our supply.  We don’t get very far before we run out of energy and get in trouble. 

Prayer is speaking our needs and praises to God.  Meditation is listening to Him in the event that He might have a specific word of direction for us this day.  He may want to impress a thought on our mind that we will miss if we don’t set aside a moment to listen to Him. 

Another part of the Lord’s prayer that powerfully speaks to this step is, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”  This step doesn’t let us get around the fact that God has a plan for our lives.  We know that our own plans didn’t get us anything but trouble. 

The Lord suggests that we pray that His will be done.  This is a big hint that if we know what is best for us, we will give Him permission to carry out His program for our lives this day.  This is not to say that God is waiting for us to step out of line a little so He can drop a brick on our heads.  It is more of a plea for us not to harm ourselves by doing things on our own. 

“Then He said to them all; “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) 

Dying to self means that we come to the end of our selves and to the end of carrying out our own plan and in our own power.  This says that if we are going to be a follower of Jesus and live the spiritual life, we have to surrender on a daily basis.  We have to give up self being in control and allow Jesus total control, if we expect the Lord to manifest His plan for our lives. 

Taking up our cross is to carry out God’s plan for our lives.  What an encouragement to know that God has an individual plan for us.  It is evidence of His love toward us that he cared enough to provide a plan.  Because God is not confused, His plan matches us perfectly.  Because God loves us, his plan will not harm us.  His plan is meaningful and for our best welfare. 

“For I know the plans I have for you.” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a hope and a future.”  (Jeremiah 29:11) 

God wants us to be in fellowship with Him on a daily basis and all day long.  He wants to be with us in all that we do.  We need only to be willing to receive this precious gift.

“A Christ-centered approach to recovery and coordinating small group meetings”

Step Twelve

“Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.” 

Having had a spiritual awakening means that we have come into a relationship with the Lord.  We have worked these steps and have come to the end of ourselves.  God has responded to us by causing Jesus to indwell our lives through the person of the Holy Spirit. 

We have been given a new beginning and a new life.  God who was with us is now in us.  We are yielded to Him and His power, wisdom and love are flowing through us.  We have a message to carry to others because we have a personal testimony of God’s redeeming grace. 

The Lord has set us free from the obsession of our life-controlling problems.  We are armed with the information of what works in people being set free from whatever bondage they are caught up in.  We can point the way to recovery because it is a path that we have walked. 

Those things in our past over which we had regrets are now our assets as we reach out to others who suffer from the same problems that we did.  Our biggest problems now serve as our biggest tools in giving others understanding, love and hope. 

We no longer have to hang our head in shame because of the way we led our lives.  We are not the same as we used to  be.  We are different people.  We can even look at our worst sin and shortcomings and see how God is using them for good in service to our fellows. 

We are able to rejoice in the promise that the Lord made, “to restore the years the canker worm had eaten.”  Now we can see more clearly what the Lord meant when He had Apostle Paul pen: 

“And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) 

Part of our recovery is helping others.  It gives us an opportunity to give away what we have received.  When we do this in an attitude of unconditional love, we are the ones who receive the biggest blessing. 

Many of us thought that we were insignificant and that our lives had no purpose or meaning before being involved in recovery.  Now we find that we are equipped to help others in matters that concern life and death.  We have been given the gift of light to lead others out of darkness.  We now have the gift of life to share with those who are not yet alive. 

Amazingly, God’s power flowing through us is making eternal impact on the part of the world that our lives touch.  When people are in real trouble they come to us for the answers.  Where some of us used to be a burden to society, we are now asset to our communities. 

As we continue to help others, it helps us to keep from slipping back into our self-centered mode of living.  The Lord puts the people before us that we are perfectly equipped to help.  The thing that we see wrong in their lives, helps us to understand areas in our own lives that still need work. 

To practice these principles in all our affairs means to work all of the steps in every area of our lives.  It means that we apply all these spiritual tools in working out our relationships with others – that we can be in communion with the Lord – in partnership with Him, in all that we do!

“You aren’t done, the only time we flunk-out is when we think we have graduated! If you think you’re green you’ll grow – if you think you’re ripe you’ll rot!”