We come together to ask our God and father to help us to bring our weight and eating under His submission. We know that when our appetites control us, we are not living in the victory that He desires for us. We will no longer use food to feed our spiritual hungers, dull our ears to listen to His voice, numb our pain, or allow our bodies to control us. We know that as we learn His word and His will for us, and submit to that will, we will no longer walk in the flesh but in His victory. And we will thus have victory over eating.
Step one: We admitted that we did not have control over our appetites and our fleshly desires and that our lives are unmanageable.
This step states that we are not only powerless over our eating habits, but that left to ourselves, we cannot manage any aspects of our lives. The truth is that no one can manage their own life without God.
Step two: Came to believe that through Jesus Christ we could be restored to right relationship with God the Father and subsequently control our fleshly desires.
This step talks about coming to believe that we will have a right relationship with God the Father.
As we look at those who do have this right relationship and have controlled their fleshly desires, their lives seem much happier and their service to God much freer than those who haven't. This is what God wants to do for each of us and will as we give Him the opportunity.
Step three: Made the decision to consciously turn from the errors and sins of our past and invite Jesus to be Lord of our lives.
We have all tried to control our eating and our weight on our own. We have all failed. Now we will consciously turn our control of our lives over to Jesus and seek His will in our eating and all of our lives.
Step four: Make an inventory of our lives and look at our habits, both good and bad so we better understand ourselves and what motivates us.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, we will fearlessly and without condemnation, take an inventory of ourselves as we seek His truth for our lives. This will be a step to help free us from our past mistakes and habits to walk in the freedom of His love.
Step five: Admitted to ourselves, God and another Christian brother or sister the exact nature of our wrongs.
Because we like to live in self-deception, it is important to confess to someone else what we are doing that is sin so Christ can come in and heal us and give us His freedom. Then we can walk in a new freedom to serve Him fully.
Step six: Were entirely ready to have God remove all our rebellions and attitudes (sins) that we had continued to live in.
We have learned the extent of these sins, have confessed them and are now ready to get rid of them. God has prepared us for this so that there will not be an emptiness as they are removed, but these areas will now be filled by His Spirt with the traits that He wishes us to have.
Step seven: Humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings and to forgive us.
It is only as we humble ourselves that God hears us. He has already done the redemptive work on the cross to forgive us, but we must lay claim to it. As He forgives our sins and casts them into the sea of His forgetfulness, we must also forgive ourselves.
Step eight: Make a list of the areas that God is leading us into that we have refused because of our weight and self-consciousness and accept that He will give us the grace to do the work that He has called us into.
We have all fallen short of the plan that God has for our lives, some of us more than others. It is only as we show a willingness to step out in His will with whatever little faith that we have that God can continue to help us be the servant that He has asked us to be.
Step nine: Take a step to assume the positions that God has called us to.
Just as we have recognized that He has more work for us to do, we must begin to do it, even if we don't see the end in sight or a way to accomplish it. We need to speak to our leaders over us and see how we can be used in the first steps of what God is calling us to.
Step ten: Continue in accountability and when we are wrong promptly admit it and turn from our sin.
We must never let ourselves think that we have accomplished the progress we see in our lives on our own, but remember that God has started this work and that Satan wants to hinder our progress. We must fight the spiritual battle to obtain the eternal prize that we are aspiring to.
Step eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation on God's word to increase our fellowship with Him, praying continually for the knowledge of His will for us and the power of His might to accomplish it.
God desires to fellowship with us and is just waiting for us to seek Him. He will gladly reveal His will to us as we prepare ourselves for His service. As our bodies become a tool that is right for the job that He has for us, He will also empower us to to His work.
Step twelve: Having been spiritually restored and set free from "the sin which does so easily beset us," we will share this freedom and the one who has freed us with all those who will listen and practice what we have learned in all areas of our lives.
We know that God's power is available to all who believe, but how shall they hear if someone does not tell them? We who have recieved His truth are to reach out and share it freely with all who are ready and willing. We are to pray for His guidance and speak boldly His truth. Our witness will be in the renewed bodies that are recognized and witness to His truth as well as the other changes in our lives.
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