Isn’t it humbling to realize that only God is God?
When someone is stuck in addiction, they think they know what is best. But remarkably, God frequently intervenes, humbles them, and shows them that He knows what is best.
Life Recovery Step Six requires one to be “ready to have God remove these defects of character.” So, Step Seven is even more challenging because it involves taking action; it says, “We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.” Without a doubt, Step Seven is hard—it takes relinquishing pride.
In Step Seven, one must ask God to remove the shortcomings they’ve identified and accepted in the previous steps. Any defects removed must be replaced with humility—this step involves a commitment to honesty.
If anyone had a problem with honesty, it was King Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible. He had a severe problem with pride that cost him his sanity—he needed to learn a lesson in humility. His mental illness caused him to roam the pastures outside the palace and chew grass like a cow for seven years. Talk about an extreme act of mercy!
After paying the price for his pride, the once self-sufficient and self-centered king said, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything He does is right and all His ways are just. And those who walk in pride He is able to humble” (Daniel 4:37 NIV).
In this confession, three things are vital to point out, the words: “everything,” and “all,” and the phrase “His ways.” These words speak to the king’s new understanding of God’s control and the choice He gives everyone struggling with an addiction to make: Do I go God’s way or my way?
To do things God’s way, an addict must admit they have a problem with a chemical, porn, food, gambling, shopping, codependency, hoarding, or another addiction. Is it difficult? Yes. It’s hard because many individuals have been turning to faulty patterns and self-medicating habits to cope. But in Step Seven, they must strip away their denial, self-centeredness, pride, ego, and other defects to move forward. To learn more about how to move forward, attend a Life Recovery Group.
God sees, hears, and answers anyone who approaches Him humbly. Always. Here’s a promise to cling to:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. – 1 John 5:14-15 NLT
by Steve Arterburn