Friday, May 10

I'm thinking about the 12 steps again. They are obviously powerful for changing lives. I want that kind of change in my life. And I think more Christians need it. Not enough of us have really experienced life change. We haven't 'bottomed out' enough to get better. We don't really see ourselves as sinners. I'm not only a sinner, but someone who has tried repeatedly to 'do the right thing', to be a disciple, and has repeatedly failed. We need 'Sinners Anonymous'. I need it. Therefore:

12 Steps for Sinners who want to recover

1. Admit that you are powerless over sin, that your life is out of control. ‘I am powerless over sin. My life is out of control.’
2. Believe that God can restore you to sanity. ‘You can save me from sin.’
3. Decide to surrender your life to God’s care. ‘I surrender my life to You.’
4. Take a complete and fearless moral inventory.
5. Confess the exact nature of your sins to God, yourself, and a trusted friend.
6. Submit to having your character faults removed and your character grown.
7. ‘Lord, please remove my character faults and grow my character.’
8. Make a list of all the people you have harmed, and be willing to make amends to all of them.
9. Made direct amends whenever possible, except when doing so would cause further injury.
10. Continue to take personal inventory. Admit wrong promptly.
11. Improve conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, praying for His will and the power to carry it out. ‘Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’
12. Carry this spiritual awakening to other sinners, practicing these principles in all of my affairs.

(Somewhat disappointingly (though not surprisingly), someone is using sinnersanonymous.com for their pagan homepage. Oh well, it's a free world.)

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