Consistent effort and practice is required if we wish to demonstrate spiritually. Mere mental assent has little lasting affect unless it is coupled with effort. “Faith without works is dead.” Thinking about exercise or dieting accomplishes little without taking the required action. Change happens when we put into action what we have learned. Are you following a consistent set of spiritual directions that you practice religiously?
The 12-step process for living that was penned in the late 1930’s employs basic spiritual principles, thousands of years old and found in virtually every denomination, laid out in simple straightforward terms. Although the 12 steps have been associated, rightfully so, with recovery from alcoholism, the steps are a blueprint for living that will work in anyone’s life. When reimagined for all, they provide a clear-cut set of directions for establishing and maintaining a conscious contact with God. To what lengths are you willing to go to have a spiritual awakening?
1. Came to believe that we are powerless over life, that life is ultimately unmanageable, that we require help and guidance.
2. Came to believe that reliance on a Power Greater than Ourselves could and would bring sense and peace to our lives.
3. Made the decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of a Power Greater than Ourselves, as you understand it. That power shall be called *God.
4. Made a fearless and searching moral inventory of our life, leaving nothing out.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another person who is unaffected by the items in our inventory, the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Seeing the ultimate futility and spiritually fatal nature of our defects of character, we become ready to have God remove them.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our defects of character, root and branch.
8. From our inventory we make a list of all we have harmed and become willing to make amends to all.
9. We make direct amends to all, except if in making those amends we cause more harm. Consult with a spiritual adviser before making any amends.
10. Take daily inventory of our life, sweeping the path daily of new mistakes.
11. Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as you understand Him, praying for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a Spiritual awakening as the result of this course of action, carry this message to all, gently demonstrating the principles we now embrace in every area of our life.
*God as you understand Him. For the steps to work God must meet a simple foundational criterion from which we can build. God must be: Available, Intelligent and Loving. Available: God must be available or what point is there to prayer? Intelligent: The creative force at the heart of everything? How could God be anything but the epitome of intelligence. Loving: If God is unloving, then what is the point to life? To begin you do not have to accept these things at face value, but we must be willing to believe that just maybe they are possible. We became willing to be willing to believe. From this bedrock, a wonderful spiritual experience can begin that will not only transform our lives, but all whose lives we touch. “Let there be Peace, and let it begin with me.” One day at a time. Copyright 2009
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