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Source: Unidentified Historical Recording – Fellowship Review Recording 877 – Date Unknown.mp3 File: steve-m-the-lord-s-prayer-and-recovery-ca-1993-archive-877.mp3 Duration: 00:51:43
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Looking back on the history of the recovery movement, it's always a blessing and a pleasure for me to be able to see how a part of recovery has always been the invitation of religious people into the recovery process. And so I'm thankful that I can be here today and kind of express some opinions, but hopefully some truth, too, about how to change lives. And my belief is that recovery is something that is very powerful, very rewarding, and necessary for most of our lives.
And I'd like just to share a little bit about myself, some personal information. I'm not an alcoholic and I'm not a cocaine addict, but I am an adult child of an alcoholic. I grew up in an alcoholic family. I went through the pain and the turmoil and the struggle and the fighting and all the chaos of an alcoholic family. I know what it means to live with the disease of alcohol. I know what it means to experience the struggle and the pain of a family life with alcohol.
Many a night I was woken up at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning when I was a child, having to referee and having to experience the police coming to your door and saying, we're arresting your dad or we're arresting your family or you're going to be put over here because of the turmoil and pain that was going on. So I'm very familiar with the struggle. I'm very familiar with the issues. Also on top of that, I'm a therapist. I have a master's degree in psychology and I'm also a pastor of a church.
So I kind of combine a lot of my ideas and not only from my background, but from my therapeutic understanding as well as my religious understanding. I thought I'd like to begin today with a big book because for me the big book is the starting point. And if I'm going to talk about the Lord's Prayer, then I want to establish a basis by which we can say there's a reason for this prayer. And going back and researching the history of the Lord's Prayer in the recovery movement, it was never really something that was established that was like, we're going to set this up and do this after meetings or we're going to do this as a part of recovery.
It was almost from the very beginning a natural transition of accepting that the Lord's Prayer was something that was a part of the recovery process. And so we're going to read through the big book for a little while and then I'm going to go through an explanation of the Lord's Prayer and afterwards answer any questions. Have kind of an answer question period. Okay? So that kind of gives you an idea of where we're going.
I'd like to read out of the big book. I'm going to start with There's a Solution on page 25. And then I'm going to go and begin to talk a little bit more about the program itself. It says, There's a Solution. Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, and the confession of shortcomings, which the process required for successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and the futility of life as we had been living it.
When therefore we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We had found much of heaven and we had been rocketed into the fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. The great fact is this, and nothing less, that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude towards life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe.
The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do for ourselves. If you are as seriously an alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives.
One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation at best we could through alcohol, drugs, etc. And the other, to accept spiritual help. In how it works, it says, It says,
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One of the things that we want to establish is that there is a history here, there is a precedent set for us, that though we are going to look at these steps in a moment and realize that these were steps, these were but suggestions, it was suggested that this is the way to go. But for us, we can realize that we have a history of recovery. We have a history of 60 years being established where people's lives have changed, when they were addicts, when they were alcoholics, when their lives were messed up, when there was no hope.
There was a program set up that there could be hope in the end. And that process is what we call recovery, and that process started with AA. And he simply establishes here that rarely, if someone is willing to follow this path, rarely do they fail. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program. Usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.
Remember that we deal with alcohol, a cunning, a baffling and powerful. Without help it is too much for us, but there is one who has all power, that one is God. May you find him now. Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point, and we asked his protection and care with complete abandon. And here are the steps that we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery. And I think that it's important for us to understand, is that there are alternatives to recovery.
There are many therapies out there that deal with cognitive therapy. There are many areas of trying to influence behavior and people's addiction through all kinds of means. And I'm not suggesting today that this is the only path that a person can take to all of a sudden deal with their addiction. I believe there are some other paths that can be taken. But the important value of what we do in CA, in NA, in AA is this.
We have a history of recovery. And the practicality of me says this. If I can look at something and see that it works, then I'm going to align myself with that. And we have today addicts who are clean and sober. Today we have alcoholics who have changed their lives. Today we have people who are hooked on booze and on drugs and on pills. And their life is different today because they took the steps necessary of this simple program and began to implement that into their lives.
I almost want to say amen, but I don't want to do that. That was part of my other part. So this is suggested. These are steps that I believe that work for people. They work for us. We can see recovery as a result of implementing these steps. And so it's important for us to not be dogmatic and say, this is the only way you can do it. But if you're going to be involved with recovery as designated by AA, CA, NA, whatever recovery group that uses the big book, let me tell you, it's a spiritual program.
It's a spiritual program. And there's no other way to evaluate that. Okay. I'd like to go on. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles, meaning the 12 steps. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection, realizing it is a step-by-step.
And sometimes you're repeating those step-by-step. Many times we have to go back over it and over it and over it. But eventually we begin to progress and we begin to realize that they are useful for our lives. Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three important ideas. One, that we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
The realization is that we were out of control. Sanity had become a part of us. And no longer were we able to be in control of things. That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. Second, that probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. For Bill W., there was no other power that could relieve his alcoholism. His spiritual experience began to set him free and began to set him on a road to recovery.
And finally, that God could and would, if he were sought, help us.
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Being convinced that we were at step three, which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood him. Just what do we mean by that and just what do we do? The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show and is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery, and the rest of the players in his own way.
Is he not really a self-seeker, even when trying to be kind? Is he not a victim of delusion that he can wrest satisfaction and happiness out of this world if only he manages well or better? So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves and the alcoholic is an extreme example of the self-will run riot. Though he usually doesn't think so. Above anything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness.
We must or it will kill us. God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of in charity getting rid of self without God's help. We have to have this help. And this is how and the why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. The tendency is for us to want to be in control. Part of the spiritual dimension of recovery is beginning to let go and let God. Beginning to allow God to be in control of our circumstances, of our situation, of our relationships, of our pain and of our struggles.
Rather than trying to manage it ourselves or rather than trying to medicate it ourselves. It didn't work. Next we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our director. He is the principal and we are his agents. He is the father and we are his children. Most good ideas are simple and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant art through which we passed for freedom.
And when we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new employer. Being all powerful, he provided what we needed. If we kept close to him and performed his work well. Established on such a footing, we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and our designs. And more and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life.
As we felt new power flow in, we enjoyed peace of mind. How many addicts desire peace of mind? It's the one thing we never had. Especially when we were young. Peace of mind. And as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of his presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn. And now we are at step three. And many of us said to our maker as we understand him, God, I offer myself to you to build with me and to do with me as you will.
Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do your will. Take away my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness to those that I would help May I do your will always. We thought well before taking this step, making sure that we were ready, that we could at least abandon ourselves by releasing him. And that's really what step three is. It's a self-realization, it's a looking inside and saying, can I and will I give myself to God as I understand him?
Will I ask God to be that power in my life, that spiritual support, that strength, which I cannot find in myself, which I cannot accomplish within my own efforts. I'm going to read the Lord's Prayer. Is there any questions about that so far, what I've said? Straight out of the big book, right? Straight out of the big book. Bernard Smith says this, The tragedy of our life is how deep must be our suffering before we learn the simple truth by which we can live.
William James says this, Self-surrender has been and always will be regarded as a vital turning point of our spiritual life. The Lord's Prayer. Go ahead and read it for us, you guys know it well. We'll say it together at the end. In this matter, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
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And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. The reason why I decided to, when Johnny asked me to come and talk, I thought about what can I share? What can be a benefit? What do you do that I could join you and say, maybe this is something that I can contribute to an understanding? And in all the recovery groups that I've ever been a part of and seen, participated in, the Lord's Prayer was a dynamic part of that meeting. And so I thought I would go through the Lord's Prayer so that we can kind of have an understanding of what it means. So that when you say the Lord's Prayer from now on, in your recovery process, you'll have an idea, perhaps on a little deeper level, of what that means.
First of all, in the Lord's Prayer, the description is Our Father in Heaven. Our Father there is a word that is used, meaning Abba. And that word is the word that we would get today as Daddy, Papa. It's a word of intimacy. It's a word that denotes relationship, and affection, and tenderness. It's much like a little child who goes up and says, Papa, or Daddy, I want something, or I want your attention, or I want to be around you.
And the whole idea of Father here is not one who is distant, not one who is abandoned, not one who is no longer relevant, but Father, Daddy, Papa, someone close, someone intimate, that as I say this prayer, I am talking to someone who is listening to me. I'm not only listening, but someone who cares. It is a personal expression. He has power to show us how to live, and what to do next, and what choices to make. God is both near, and can be known personally.
You see, when in the Lord's Prayer, He says, Our Father, He is talking to someone who is close to His, that is responding. And He's saying to His disciples, pray like this. I want you to have the same kind of understanding, the same kind of intimacy. That when you approach God, that you approach God in the context of a loving father, son, daughter relationship. That this is the kind of relationship that God desires, that God wants. And I'm not saying we want that, I'm saying He wants that.
And in the process of spiritual renewal in our lives, and recovery, then we begin to recognize that we have a need inside of us for a Father. We have a need inside of us for a Papa. We have a need inside of us for a Daddy, who listens, who cares, and who responds to us. So implied in this is that God is both near to us, and that He can be known personally. It is a relationship that is being talked about. We turn our lives over to God's power, and letting go of our need to control ourselves and those around us, we acknowledge that the answer lies beyond us.
The answer for recovery is not within us, if we adhere to the principles of the Big Book. We recognize that as much effort as we have made in our lives, we were not able to manage our lives successfully. And it has taken us to the point of realizing that we must look outside of ourselves, and the Lord's Prayer is the recognition that we are looking to God for answers that we don't have. We are looking to God, the Father, for help, which we can't produce ourselves.
But the answer lies beyond us, that we can reach out and in fact receive it. The Fatherhood of God is built into our subconsciousness. We must learn to distinguish between our earthly Father and God. How often when we say the Lord's Prayer, our Father, do we remember perhaps some of the pain and struggle of our own fathers, of our own relationships on the earth that haven't always been easy, that haven't been pain-free.
And much of our struggles with God often come out of a broken relationship with our own human dads. And there is healing when we begin to approach God and call Him Father and realize that He now has the power to heal those relationships in our lives.
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The Fatherhood of God is built into our subconsciousness, and as a result of this, unless we are healed from the hurtful childhood emotions and memories, we will see God as you experience your earthly Father. And so one of the areas of approaching and saying the Lord's Prayer is perhaps opening your own life to God the Father and allowing Him to begin to heal that relationship as a father to a son or daughter.
To heal the fear, to heal the abandonment, to heal the abuse verbally, physically, or sexually that we experience in our lives. To realize that our Father in Heaven, as described in the Lord's Prayer, is someone who wants to enter into our lives and produce a healing and a change and recovery from insanity. Our Father, as depicted in this prayer, desires to heal us, to restore us, to affirm and to fill us with the worth that He intended us to feel. God's intention all along had always been that you would feel on top of the world, that you would have a sense of worth and value about who you are.
God's intention was that, but the brokenness of our lives and the insanity of addiction took it away, and God's desire is to begin to restore us and heal us. Okay, the next part it says, how will it be your name? The word there means holy. What I want us to understand more in terms of what this is saying. The word in the Old English language for holy is the same word for whole and for health. So holy, whole, and health go hand in hand. So when we begin to approach God the Father, then we begin to understand that God's desire is to bring wholeness into our lives. That God is a holy God, but as a result of that, He wants to bring holiness and wholeness to us.
In other words, there's a restoration that God wants to bring forth. If you are dedicated to God and relating closely to Him, you will become holy or set apart in the service of God. You will become whole, free and recovering from wounds and from injuries, and your health will be restored, a condition of being sound in body, mind, and spirit. This holiness or wholeness makes us able to love again, to laugh, to give and to receive, to stand for the right, to be who we are and who we were created to be, wiser and stronger, even when we fail, and affirming of others, mending the broken and healing our world.
You see, we honor God and His attributes that affect our lives. And so, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, we are acknowledging that God wants to bring wholeness into our lives. But here is God, and we are broken, and He says, let's come together. Because in that communion of relationship between God and us, we begin to see the healing that we desire in our lives. Okay, your kingdom come. It implies rulership, that God's presence and power can be enjoyed in the present. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
And we are asking that God's kingdom will begin to come and to rule in our lives. And rather than again, me living a life of being unmanaged, we now invoke God to now come and begin to manage our lives. Just like you hire a manager. You hire someone to come into your life and begin to do something for you that you couldn't do before. It implies rulership, that God's presence and power can be enjoyed in the present.
Isn't that, just for a moment, awesome? If you have any concept of spirituality, and to believe that you're going to have to reach from outside yourself, and to believe that whatever you're reaching to God as you understand Him, that He wants to come in and begin to heal, and to make whole, and begin to bring health, and begin to change your life. It's awesome. It's not like we're happy to beg, plead, do the right things, perform, jump through the certain hoops. God says, it is my desire, it is my pleasure to come and begin to manage your lives. Begin to help you work through the pain, the struggle, that the disease of alcohol or drugs has brought.
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It's awesome. It's awesome to realize that we don't have to play God. That God can be God and become a part of our lives. It's hard when you're in that mold. We are inviting His kingdom of joy and freedom to come into our lives. That our intellect, our will, and our emotions, our subconscious, which has many rooms, will be open to God's rules. Here we become a more whole person and are able to pass into this wholeness to our family and to our friends.
You see, not only does by the asking of God to come and manage your lives help you, it begins to bring restoration to your husbands, and to your wives, to your children, and to your friends. How often has our lives been simply a history of brokenness, a history of pain, a history of difficulty. That God says, not only can I begin to work in your life, but now you can begin to see restoration of those things that you thought were broken forever.
And sometimes, according to the post-test, we're not able to go back and fix everything. But many times we can, and at the very least we can begin to let go of the resentment and the bitterness that we have felt in our own personal lives. When someone has let us down, when someone has hurt us, when someone hasn't followed through, when someone abandoned us. All the pain, and all the hurt, and all the struggle that we have gone through in our lives, that basically was the energy and the momentum for the addiction.
God says, not only can I begin to work in your life, but I can begin to work through your life to touch that brokenness in other people. Isn't that what the post-test is all about? Give it away. One alcoholic, one drug addict talking to another. Here we become a more whole person and able to pass this wholeness to our family and to our friends. It is a matter of choosing to align ourselves with God and his purposes in the world for ourselves and for all others.
You see, basically we are establishing a new society of mankind, formed where hope has been re-established into the human soul. That now there is hope at the end. How desperate you have become in your addiction to realize now that with God's help there is hope for your future. You have direction for your life. You have a purpose that you are not stuck, that you are not mired in all the ugliness of your addiction, but you have now an opportunity to move forward in life with a direction and with a purpose and with hope for your future.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Ah, here is a puppy. Isn't it? Your will be done. And guess what? You don't have to be an addict to have a strong will that wants to resist God. All of us by nature will resist God's will. But much of our time as we go through our own brokenness and our own hurt and our own pain in life, we begin to recognize that my control and my will needs to change something.
Your will be done. C.S. Lewis says this, There are only two kinds of people in the end. Listen to this. Those who say to God, thy will be done. And those to whom God says, thy will be done. You see, there's only two kinds of people. Either we're going to say, God, we want what you want for my life that is unmanageable. Or God says, I'm going to give you what you've been asking for. No thanks. I don't want that.
Time out. Let's change this. Human freedom causes unimaginable problems for us, yet even when you turn your life over to God, he doesn't take your free will away. He doesn't possess your will or want you to give it up.
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He wants you to allow him to guide you and to guide your will, to inspire you so that you want what He wants. You see, God is not after you to all of a sudden give up you. In fact, what you're going to find is that as you turn your life over to God as you understand Him and begin to allow that process to occur in your life, God doesn't take away your humanity. He gives your humanity back to you. He doesn't take you away.
He makes you more of who you were meant to be. And isn't that exciting? You see, because it was the drugs, it was the alcohol, it was the pain, it was the brokenness that robbed me of my humanity, but I have no way to get it back. I have no way to restore it. I have no way to put the pieces together. The egg fell and the pieces fell apart and I can't put it all together anymore. But as I turn to God as I understand Him, then I begin to recognize that God's will for my life is to make me more of who He created me to be, to put my humanity back together when I couldn't.
God doesn't lessen our identities when we yield to Him, but makes us more fully ourselves. God doesn't rob us of our humanity, but restores our humanity. St. Augustine says this, he said, if you have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find rest in you. And there's a yearning inside of us all to be put back together, to feel like there's hope at the end. And it comes as we turn to God, as we understand Him.
Our Father in Heaven, how it would be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The ways, the atmosphere, and the attitudes of heaven to come upon the earth. There is the invitation that God's presence now would become real to me in my addiction, in my life, in my struggles. That the blessings of heaven will be ours to experience as well. God says, I want to bring joy, and I want to bring peace to you.
I want to bring love to you. Heaven is not a pie in the sky, but it's a reality that now invades our reality. Our Father who it is in heaven, how it would be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are asking God's reality to become our reality now. We're asking for all that makes up God to become real to us today in our brokenness, in our pain, and in our struggles.
We're saying, God of the universe, come into my life and make a difference today. The blessings, the hope, the generosity that you have, the love that you desire to share, we say, come, fill me with that today. Let my presence on earth now begin to experience a little bit of what heaven is like. He says, next, give us this day our daily bread. This is an active request. Participate in an involved, conscious way.
God tells us to ask him for our needs to be met daily, so we will keep in mind that he is the source of our supply. You see, God desires for us to ask him, you see, for our daily bread. But the word there, the idea, the concept there is not just that of physical food, but it is also the idea of emotional support. It is also the idea of spiritual support. It is the idea that every one of us wake up in the morning with certain needs, certain desires, and God's intention is to meet those.
God's intention is to love us through our daily struggles. Give us this day our daily bread. It is a recognition that God is the source rather than me. I wake up and I have these needs, and God says, I am powerful and loving, and I care about you enough to begin to help meet those needs. God tells us to ask him for our needs to be met daily, so we will keep in mind that he is the source of our supply.
God is interested in our individual needs. Our security is not in our abilities, but in his desire to provide for us. Our security in life doesn't depend on how good I am, how much money I make, how much
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effort I put out. Our security comes from God. God desires to meet the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual needs on a daily basis. Remember, recovery, as well as walking to God, is one day at a time. Today, I need God's help. Tomorrow, if I still live, I'm going to need God's help. But today, I need God's help. It's one day at a time. You can't project into the future. You can't say, well, I'll be this, or I'll be that.
Or I'll take care of this, or I'll take care of that. And for all of us, most of us, okay, in recovery, always living in one of two realms. Either the past or the future. The difficulty is learning to live in today. Learning to accept today for today. And that's it. There's always this tendency to look at the past with regrets. With the pain, with the sorrow, with going, gee, I wish I had, or I wish that hadn't have happened.
Or the future, the anxiety and the fear of what might happen. What's going to happen to me down the line? And you see, God wants to work, not in the realm of the past. So He will, in terms of helping you to recover from that. And He will provide you security. He says, I will always be with you. But the reality is that God wants to work with you today. This 24 hour period that I have, God says, let me work in your life today.
Recognize that I am the source of your daily breath. Recognize that I am the source of your emotional support. Recognize that I am the source of strength that you're going to need to get through the day. Because a lot of us, especially in addiction, it wasn't a daily issue, it was a moment by moment issue, wasn't it? There were times and seasons where you were just wondering if you could get by the next five minutes.
Much less the next hour, the next day. Huh? Yeah, certainly. Didn't feel like you could. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. It takes humility to ask God for forgiveness. It started when we admitted that we were powerless over the addictions in our lives. And the pattern of our daily experiences were unmanageable. We had to let go of pride, of perfectionism. And our illusion that we were in control of our own lives.
When we can admit that we have fallen short, then we can begin to experience the forgiveness from God, and learn to forgive ourselves, and finally to forgive those who hurt us. See, to give us our debts, it means that we begin to recognize that there is some guilt in all of us, and there's some shame in all of us, and there's some pain in all of us. And the reality is that we, in order to get past that, must begin to have a clean slate with God.
So we ask for His forgiveness. We ask now that there's no barrier. That now there can be kind of an emptying before God, and a serenity that can come afterwards. And understand, too, that forgiveness is a process. That not only do you ask God's forgiveness, but you also have to learn to forgive yourself. Being a therapist, this has been one of the major issues that I've ever dealt with in terms of people and their struggles in life.
They could accept that God would forgive them because they had recognized enough of love in God that He would do that. But they haven't been able to forgive themselves. And for many of us, that's really the criteria in struggle. We haven't let ourselves off the hook. We haven't taken ourselves off the cross. And in that process, we have tried to resolve it and change it, and yet we couldn't. You see, God not only wants to free you in terms of forgiveness for Him, but He wants to teach you how to forgive yourself.
So let yourself off the hook. And I believe it's like a process in which you can let yourself off the hook. When you can recognize that you're just a human being that struggles and pains just like anybody else, then you can begin to forgive those that you have resentments towards. Then you can begin to forgive those who have hurt you in the past. Then you can begin to forgive those who let you down.
So forgiveness comes when we say, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And the belief there is that it's a process that goes together, though, too. That as we are asking God's forgiveness, we are forgiving ourselves and we're forgiving those around us,
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those that hurt us. And the thing about forgiveness is I notice that it's an everyday thing. Don't you? It's not like you can just do it one time and like it's gone. You know? Okay, no more. Don't have to deal with this anymore. No, it's not. It's something that I have to continue to struggle with. I have to continue to deal with. But as I come to a place in my life where I can forgive myself or others, then I begin to be set free.
Because I begin to experience the peace that I long for. Because you will never have peace in your heart as long as bitterness reigns. You will never have peace in your heart as long as resentments are maintained. You will never have sobriety in a true sense unless that forgiveness can come into your life. It takes a letting go and a letting go before you're set free. As we are forgiven, we also have no right to withhold forgiveness from those around us.
For it is these very resentments which will start again the cycle of addictive behavior. Accepting ourselves as created in God's image, we can begin to accept God's love for us. Not that so that we can continue in our brokenness, but so that God's love can lead us into a better way. God restores our spirit. We have been forgiven, cleansed, and refreshed. Keeping our lives right daily. No more barriers between God and ourselves or ourselves and others.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. The recognition here is that we will all be tempted to go back into the same cycle, the same direction that we have come from. You see, even though your addiction was very painful and created many problems and struggles for your life, it also was a place of security and safety. It was a place that you were used to. You didn't like it, but it was comfortable.
And it challenges us to all of a sudden for our comfort zones to be challenged and to be changed. And here we have a situation where, and lead us not into temptation to do what? To fall back into the same patterns that we had had before. When we are praying to the Father, we are asking Him to help us to recognize our weaknesses and be able to have God's help and support to overcome that weakness, those struggles that we have fallen into.
You see, a test, it means a test or a trial, that temptation. The enticement to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain. The prayer is for healing and for protection in areas that we are vulnerable, where we can most easily be tempted. See, one of the things that you, in order for you to grow as a person, as a man or as a woman, as an individual, is beginning to recognize your strengths and your weaknesses.
And it is not until you begin to deal honestly with your weaknesses that you will overcome your addictive behavior. And you will not overcome that unless you have God's help. But a part of your maturity as a person will be your recognition that there are deficiencies in your life, that there are struggles. I am tempted to drink, I am tempted to do other things, whatever they may be. And to begin to understand that I have some choice over that and I have some ability with God's help to now overcome that.
To no longer be bound to that temptation. To no longer just give in. To no longer just continue the addictive behavior. But now I have hope to overcome that. And the prayer here is that lead us not to temptation. What it simply means is we're asking God's help. That's what it means. Here is a request for God's protection. The idea came to me that we are weak, but He is strong. It's like that song for children, isn't it?
But we are weak, but He is strong. And His strength now becomes a part of my strength. He now compensates for me when I can't do it myself. And what does he require? Simply asking me to do it. And the recognition that there will be areas in my life that I will have weaknesses and I will have to protect myself and I will have to ask God's protection for that. Alcoholic, you don't go into the lounge when you go for a…
[00:45:03]
a restaurant, right? You don't go in and sip a Coke, okay? Now maybe some of you can, I'm not saying you can't, but I know most people and they can't because they don't want the temptation for something to begin to work in their life, okay? I remember Albert and I, when we were uncovering some boxes and some things and there was a whole case of liquor that we found. I don't know how old it was, I don't know, probably it was quite good in terms of the time and everything. It was probably quite expensive. But I remember Albert's face and he went, here, you take this, you know? And why did he do that? Because it's like, I don't want to really entice and allow myself the privilege to be able to entertain it. Because when you begin to entertain it, it's just a short step to begin to do it.
And we need God's help to help us to recognize, God, I don't even want to entertain it. I don't even want to enjoy for the moment the possibility. Get it out of my face. Get it out of here. Because I know where that road leads. It really leads to insanity and destruction. Okay. So we pray for strength and for awareness that we are here for a purpose and our actions for good really matter. As a part of recovery, each of us must listen and learn what God is teaching through the circumstances that we have. We are shaping and developing our lives with integrity and we learn to watch and to wait on God. Thomas Morton says this, all true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence on God. It is that I need His help.
Step three, step two, step three, and step 11 is basically that very issue. I've come to realize that I am dependent on God for His support, His help, and His love. And finally, the doxology as it ends. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. It is an expression of worship. It is a response to what God has done and who God is. For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Kingdom means that it is His kingdom and not ours. We are not here to establish our own kingdom. We are here simply to ask for His kingdom to become a part of our lives. God's power. The word there in the Greek means dynamite, explosiveness. And so the idea there is God's power to heal and to deliver and to provide and to make us whole. We are using and utilizing God's power to change me, not my will, not my ability, not my power. Because it's going to take power to overcome addiction. It's going to take power to change lives. You can't just simply manufacture it. It's not within us. We've already proven that through our addiction.
The history has shown us that. So what do we have to do? We have to begin to rely on God's power. His dynamite to change our lives. Some of us need a lot of explosions, right? Glory. It simply means His honor, not ours. We acknowledge His presence in our lives. It is our solemn appreciation of His love for us. And finally, amen. And amen simply means this. Truly, so be it. Let it be so, Lord. It means that we agree. It's like saying, I agree. All these things, I agree with you. This is what we need. This is what we want. Okay. We went through the Lord's prayer. Are there any questions about what we said? What we talked about? Any ideas, thoughts? You don't like what I said, whatever.
Yes. Yes. It means so be it, truly. It means truly, yes, that's true. So be it, or let it be so. In other words, let what we just said happen and occur. So it's like we as a human being are agreeing to this, what God wants to do. You see, because I believe it takes a choice. God says, I'm willing, I'm ready to help you through your addiction. I'm ready to help you to make your life manageable. But we have to say, so be it. That's true. We want that. We're willing to have you do that for us.
[00:50:04]
It takes our choice to say, yes, we want it. Any questions? Anybody else? About what we said? Anything. Okay. Why don't we stand up? And take hands with the person next to you, family member or friend. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. We come back at work. Good.