Turning Point

June 9, 2012 by Jack Miller in Daily Recovery Devotional | 2 Comments

“Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. Your spirit wants to do what is right, but your body is weak.” Then Jesus went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if I must do this and it is not possible for me to escape it, then I pray that your will be done.” Matthew 24: 41-42

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

After taking our inventory and confessing it to God and to another, there is no longer any hiding or denying our character defects. They are all right there in front of us exposed to the light of day. So what do we do about them now? What is our next course of action? Its painfully obvious that we relied on unhealthy coping skills-our character defects- to deal with the difficulties life threw our way. When faced with fear, confusion and indecision, we pulled out the only tools we knew how to use, tools based on self preservation.

We stand at a turning point, and we have to choose between relying on what our fleshly nature wants, and relying on God to remove our defects and fill us with something new. Our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak. We are weak to the temptation of this world and often want to finding the easy way out. Jesus gives us the perfect formula for facing such challenges. First we have to stay awake and be aware and alert, then we need to pray, and we need to pray before we are tempted to fall back into our old character defects. Next we acknowledge to God in our prayers what our fears, temptations and desires are. Then we ask for the strength and courage to do as he wants, not as we want.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God’s will and not by human desires. You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols. 1 Peter 4: 2-3

Lord Jesus, thank you for for showing me how to follow the Father’s will for my life, thank you for being the perfect example of how to pray and overcome the fleshly desire to take the easy way out. May I always follow your example.