Hope For Today "Acceptance"

The exact nature of our wrongs is rooted in the lie that our problems are caused by what is around us rather than what is within us.  It’s time that we admitted that to God, to ourselves, and to another human being.

Many of us lost our true identity because we grew up in dysfunctional families and were forced to assume survival roles. God invites us to the truth that we are loved and that living now in the embrace of His love, we can become the complete person He created us to be.  Our life with God in recovery is about finding both character strengths to build on and character defects that hinder us from becoming loving fulfilled individuals. 

We’re looking at Step 3 of the 12 Steps:  We made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understood Him. What does that look like in practical way?

Why do we continue to do things our own way when it obviously isn’t working?  Doing life on our own without God has led us to empty, lonely, and shame-filled places. That’s what Step 1 of the 12 Steps reminds us: Step One – We admitted that we were powerless over our dependencies and that our lives had become unmanageable.

It is a profound moment when we come to our senses and realize we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable.  It’s not meant to be one of hopelessness but rather a moment of letting go and turning our focus somewhere new for solutions to our life’s problems.

To be “poor in spirit” means that we come to an honest understanding of who we are without God in our life.  We recognize that we are powerless to do life on our own. We no longer deny what we have done in the past, but humbly admit the exact nature of our wrongs to God and ask for His forgiveness.

God tells the truth and helps us to get ready for what we will face. Doing the right thing often isn’t convenient.  Sometimes we put a vision in our minds of hardship and overwhelming pain and decide we did not want to deal with it, at any cost. But God has a good way forward for us.

I’m so grateful that Jesus Christ gave His life as the seed that died so that you and I could find life with God. The harder part for us is the time when it’s up to us to be the seed that is planted into the soil and dies so that new life can be multiplied.

With full knowledge of our broken past, Jesus looks at us today, asks us to follow Him, and promises to use us in meaningful and satisfying ways if we will do His will.  His resurrection power in us is more than enough to make us successful in the venture.

God wants to lift us out of whatever sorrow and darkness has clouded our own souls with life’s challenges.  Our part is to realize that we are not seeing reality as clearly as we should.  God is with us, has been with us, providing us whatever we need for whatever we face. 

We humans are quite small and fragile in the big scheme of things. We’re easily brought to a place of desperation. Thankfully God is there when we finally realize our need and makes all we need available to us.

Whether today is just another step in a long journey for you or maybe you are at a place where you only hoped you could be and God has brought you here, let’s take a moment and make a response of thanks and trust to God who is making a treasure for us of this day.