“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2

I was reading a devotional from Oswald Chambers the other day when I realized he was talking about recovery. Oswald states that “We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do that ourselves; we have to work out the salvation God has worked in.” I don’t know about you, but before recovery I spent a lot of time living the lie, staying in denial and believing my behavior wasn’t hurting anyone but me; justifying, minimizing, and rationalizing all of it away. God was willing to be in my life, but I wasn’t ready to give up my self-reliance, even though it was destroying me. It wasn’t until I surrendered to God and admitted that my life was unmanageable and I was powerless to fix it that my life started to change. God was willing to give me all I needed, but he also wanted me to do what I needed to do as well. Building character is a big deal, and without God we can’t get very far. We have to be willing to give up our character defects and then actively engage the process. We have character tests every day; what choice will we make? Will we choose God’s will or our own? I’m not suggesting perfection here, we have been chained to these defects for a long time, and it takes time to work them out. We build character one day at a time, by making better choices one day at a time, by surrendering to God’s will one day at a time. When feeling weak or tempted; take a “time out”, think about your state of mind, take your thoughts captive, and tap into Gods power! Focus question:  Are you expecting God to do for you what you can do for yourself? Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank you for my recovery, my walk with You. I pray to have the willingness to surrender my character defects to You today, that I stay ever vigilant in this area of my life. That when these defects crop up, I turn to Your power to gain victory over them. In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen. Recover what is lost, Celebrate what is found! Dana Cramer // Celebrate Recovery at Crossroads