Christian 12 Steps
Step Eleven: Making Contact
By G. Neil Armstrong
Introduction
Psalm
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
As I pray and meditate on His will for me, my thoughts always seem to lead to others. In my life I have met people that fit every description I’ve ever read in God’s Word. I’ve met the need. I’ve met the wealthy. I have been able to relate to them all, however brief my experiences have bee. I have walked straight and I have walked crooked.
I have gone through many things repeatedly and at each interval I’ve come to understand more clearly. I can’t claim to know God’s exact will for everything, and I can’t claim to be entirely ready to align myself with His will at all times.
I want to. Oh, I really do want to be in constant accord with God’s will in my life and in His universal will for mankind. It can be done only by dying. I don’t mean a physical death, and I don’t exempt that either. I mean that somehow I need to completely begin again so absolutely that there no longer remains in me any trace of the old man of sin and disgrace. How else can I “unyearn” my deepest desires?
How can I overcome that which used to overcome me? I cannot. It seems to me that the only way I can be repaired instead of being utterly replaced is to accept the scars as landmarks and the shortcomings as reminders. It is important that the repaired me never forget the damaged me.
This is the power to carry out Gods will for me, to determinedly sacrifice my own comfortable position in hope to lead another as he words his way to his solution. He must find it for himself and in his own way, and I must not rush him, nor give up on him.
Telling him how don’t word all by itself. It only offers a ray of hope. I must walk. I must inquire. I must intercede for him in communication and contact with God, our only real hope. He must do all the trial and work on his own feet. The path to his solution cannot be taught. It can only be found. It is his free will of choice. It will require his entire will.
After all, it will come to his surrender, not mine. This is God’s will for me, God’s will for him, and God’s universal will for mankind…His will and our will be one.
