Step 7 – How We Change

Step 7: We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

Step seven says that I must go to God, asking him to help with my life problems. Haven’t I been here before? In my addiction, I begged God to take the hunger from me, but he didn’t. I’ve already tried this. God didn’t help me before. What will be different this time?

For me, this has been a burning question that has shaped my journey, faith, and recovery. What exactly is it that God does for me and what must I do for myself? Why didn’t God simply take my desire away when I asked him? Do I need him or am I on my own?

To understand step seven, I needed to understand where I went wrong before. Previously, when I asked God to change me, I remained unwilling to do anything. I simply wanted a magical excision of one defect from my life. I wanted everything else to stay the same and I certainly wasn’t willing to do anything uncomfortable. God had already given me the freedom to follow him instead of myself, but I refused, insisting that God do it my way. This was a disaster.

Now, the difference is, that in step seven, I’m humbly asking God for help. I’ve worked the first six steps, realizing that I can’t do this my way. I’ve accepted my need to surrender and I’ve become willing to do whatever it takes to change.

Today’s passage tells us that those who know Christ have already undergone a spiritual transformation, but also that we must continually choose to follow him. What does this mean practically? It means that if I’m struggling with something, I have the freedom to bring it to God. I must take my life problems to him, requesting his help, but also asking what I must do. It is often only in my obedience that I see God work. I wanted my destructive appetite to be gone while I was popping pills in my mouth, but the appetite didn’t dissolve until I followed God in radical obedience.

In step six, we accepted that we must do whatever it takes to abandon our way for God’s. In step seven now, we begin to do it. This is how we change.