“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.”