12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #6
Focus on the Recovery Process
12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #6
We are at the midpoint of 12-step recovery. We have admitted our powerlessness over whatever the issue confronting us, have turned our will and lives over to the care of God as we currently know Him, have made a searching, fearless, and personal moral inventory, and then have shared the results with a fellow traveler who is also on the road to recovery.
Yes, we have acknowledged our character defects, but we have also come to believe that the root of all our troubles—selfishness and self-centeredness—come from our sinful nature, a congenital defect! “The sinful mind does not submit to God’s law (of love) nor can it do so.” —Romans 8:7
So because our promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand, we have come to the conclusion that recovery is a spiritual battle and that only God can and will replace our self-centeredness with His love.
“The Christian life is a battle and a march. But the victory to be gained is not won by human power. The field of conflict is the domain of the heart. The battle which we have to fight—the greatest battle that was ever fought by man—is the surrender of self to the will of God, the yielding of the heart to the sovereignty of love.” —Mount of Blessing 141
In this step we are fully surrendered, entirely ready for God to do His “heart-transplant” in our lives – “Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine Own way – Thou art the potter, I am the clay.” This is our daily, ongoing experience, “and thus through constant surrender to God we are learning to live the new life, even the life of faith.” —Steps to Christ 48 (adapted)
Finally, I claim one of David’s heartfelt prayers as my personal 6th step prayer: “Search me O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” —Psalm 139:23, 24.
Harold B