Step One is "Realize I'm not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable." "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor." Matthew 5:3
In recovery it's so important to realize I'm not God, it's in the first step. When I woke up this morning I was hit over the head with the reality that the converse is also true: God is not me. I've heard a thousand times that where I am weak, He is strong, but truth of the matter runs much deeper than that.
I'm bound by time. He is not. He is the Great I Am. He always Was. Is. Forever shall Be. He doesn't just see into the future. He is in the future: controlling it, creating it. He has infinitely more power to control the future than I have in this very moment to decide what I will do and how I will do it.
I'm distracted by my five senses. Bright, shiny things take my attention away from what's truly important -- what's really real. Then, of course, my feelings sometimes or even often out vote my best ideas, my good intentions, my common sense, my education, my experience... God is not ever distratcted. His mind doesn't wander. He's not fickle or mercurial. Not manic, not depressive. He is our Rock. He never changes.
He always keeps His promises.
He never forgets.
He is the One constant in our ever-chaning world.
Thank You, God for being You. Thank You for loving us the way only You can love us.
Consider the hymn: Great is Thy Faithfulness, by Thomas O. Chisholm (words) and William M. Runyan (music). Enjoy Selah singing the hymn.
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no Shadow of turning with thee;
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.
Refrain:
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided;
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto thee.
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
