– Terri Fornear
Step 7 – We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. – Hebrews 12:1
In the 6th and 7th steps, we become willing to let go of our defects, issues, behaviors, old feelings, unresolved grief, and beliefs that keep us weighed down.
My initial problem was my old nature – which was dead toward God (Ephesians 2:1-3). I couldn’t change it; train it; or make it “devoted” or pleasing enough for God.
I love how Paul says in Romans 6:3-5, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… burial (v. 4) … and resurrection (v. 5)?” There’s something here that we must first know or see; then believe; and then be willing to wear as our LIFE – our union with Christ on the cross. All of His work and none of our work.
No shortcuts… no self-help programs… no religious devotion plans. Just the LIFE of Christ in me and the new heart He has given me in the New Covenant. Walking by faith in His provision, which bears fruit in due season.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. – Hebrews 8:10
I wish I could say that I do not deal with anxiety and worry after Joe’s cancer battle! But no, these two enemies sneak into my life in many ways, tempting me to take over the reins of my life. Step 7 allows me to HUMBLY ask God to remove my shortcomings.
I love this step! It puts Jesus finished work center stage! I either believe His work works or I continue practicing religion without Him!
And in Him you have been made complete, … and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the circumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him. – Colossians 2:10
My true self is already as it should be. It is not something that I whip into shape – as it is the seed of Christ in Me!!!! That seed takes over where my powerlessness ends. His work becomes bigger as my eyes are open to God’s will – which WAS done on the cross!
