Step 1 – Humility
Humility – Admitting that Apart from God we can do nothing for spiritual growth and we are powerless against our own sin.
The greatest arrogance is to believe that you can fix yourself; that you don’t need God. Sin plagues us night and day. It seems that every waking thought has evil just behind the door, and some unwaking thoughts too. What we want to do is so difficult to accomplish.
Let us purpose that the problem is not your level of self discipline and self control. Let us purpose that no amount of self discipline and self control can fix this problem. As soon as you find enough self discipline to fix your issues, now another issue arises, pride quickly takes root. The best we can do is replace one sin with another. Let us purpose that the real issue is not a lack of will power, but rather a lack of connection.
It has often been said that sin causes separation from God. Yet, Jesus (the God man) was often found eating with sinners. He preferred the company of sinners to the self righteous. Even Adam found that when he sinned, God came looking for him. Yes, it seems that sin broke Adam’s connection to God… Or, did Adam separate from God in his heart before he ate the apple. This may seem like a pointless issue, this we all have believed. But, God once told me that sin does not cause separation, rather separation causes sin.
We all know that if we could forever remain in God’s presence, feeling His love, experiencing His majesty, then the potential for us to sin would virtually disappear. John even says that no one who abides in God sins. We have to pull away from God in order to sin. We have to separate at the heart level before we can even move into sin.
If no amount of self control and self discipline can fix our issues with sin, then our efforts of will power must be placed elsewhere. Our effort of will power must be placed on learning how to remain in the presence of a loving God who never offers rejection. All growth must be from Him alone. He alone can cure us. He alone can set us free. The best we can do is hand ourselves to Him.
So, in step one, we admit that we are powerless to fix ourselves. We are powerless to grow ourselves. We need God. He alone can transform us. He does not fix, He transforms. He alone can complete the resurrection process.
We also admit that any self effort to curb sin is not a cure, rather it is a temporary measure until the cure can be obtained from God. This is what our salvation pays for, that by His might, He conforms us to the image of Christ as we surrender ourselves to Him.