7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Remedy for the removal of our shortcomings or defects of character, to own them, face them, ask God to remove what we can’t.
Humbly:
We humbly (recognition that we can’t) ask our God, our Higher Power, the God of our understanding to remove the defect.
God helps by:
Revealing the origin of the problem, what happened in childhood that created the pattern. Finding the cause gives us understanding and shifts us out of false guilt and shame lies that we carried from childhood into adulthood. Then we find we grieve, we hurt, we put the responsibility back on the caregivers, parent(s) we grew up with. We are not at fault for creating the patterns.
From this ongoing process of discovery, we then ask and receive the courage and the strength to make the changes in our behavior. With God’s help we begin to find success. We are responding to life’s challenges differently.
This removal of broken patterns continues throughout our lives. Life stresses, which are many and are not of our own making, give us more opportunities for change. When we find ourselves wanting to use an old pattern to cope, we again ask for God’s help. Over the years we discover we are living very differently; we are navigating life’s challenges successfully. We are being healed and set free.
Grace. Acceptance.
God seeks out broken people to fix, to heal, to mend, to repair. Because He cares.
We come to know that we need it and that we can’t do it. So chose to humbly ask. God is enough.
‘”If you can earn it, it isn’t a gift—it’s wages.
If you can deserve it, It isn’t a gift—it’s an honorarium.
If you can negotiate terms for it, it isn’t a gift—it’s a contract.
If you are obligated to comply with the accompanying terms and conditions, it isn’t a gift—it’s an incentive.
Grace, however, is a gift. Pure gift.
We receive the growth, healing, serenity, and sobriety that He wants to give us.
We discover help, not punishment.
Soul-rest is letting go, is surrendering, is stopping. Then letting God do what we can’t do.
Humble: I can’t – You can.
Give up control.
Give up trying to figure it all out.
Give up trying to force self to do. To be different.
Humility is being right sized – not bigger or smaller than – not ego or shame but modest. An honest acceptance of self as we are.
God will remove, but His way and timing – most of the time we are not aware of what He is doing until we are reacting differently. Hindsight becomes an asset.
Shortcomings – the incorrect patterns of living that fall short of His way and will.
Count on: God’s mercy His grace, His awareness, His understanding, His grace, and most of all His love. God’s love is unconditional love and acceptance.
The world system works on conditional love: if you do good, you are loved and accepted. If you do bad, you are not loved and are rejected. The Enemy’s way of control.
Practice rigorous honesty, we must daily ask for a lifetime. We do the footwork; He does the changing.
Will He, can He, does He want to? Help me to trust.
How will He remove my shortcomings, where I come up short? He uses life to challenge and then gives us His grace to choose not, and then find we are changed.
God chooses which defect to remove, and His way and timing.
We need to be reachable, open minded.
Focus on helping others, to give away what have been given is another way we change.
We are learning to name our fears and then ask for help in prayer.
Choice: so, we want to change? Then we have to stop what we want to change with God’s help.
Trusting the process means the ability to trust returns, grows, flourishes by acting as if we believe.
We are earning to recognize when God is working to change us. Then we come to experience serenity and emotional sobriety, healing.
“Before God changes our circumstances, He wants to change our hearts.” Warren Wierbe.
So difficult to remember when we are in the midst of a something or other. How do you help yourself to remember?
This brought a chuckle…”If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Recovery is a choice to get off the wrong train and onto the correct one.
Those who wonder if the glass half empty and those who wonder if the glass half full are missing the point. The glass is refillable. God is the God of second, third, fourth, ……. chances.
I remember in a meeting realizing that my ability to be grateful had returned. I was so grateful that I could be grateful!
“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” Frederick Koenig
From the Big Book:
“My Creator, I am now willing that You should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding.”
The Big Book (Alchoholics Annonymous), pg. 77
From the Good Book:
“Set a guard, O Lord, before my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.”
Psalm 141:3
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it (for life or death).”
Proverbs 18:21
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boost all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
James 4:10
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9
“Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God – what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.”
Romans 12:2
“For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefined); then is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). (It is willing to) yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is whole-hearted and straightforward, impartial, and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).”
James 3:15-16
“For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days (good weather apparent or not) keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit). Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly.”
1 Peter 3:10-11