Step 7

 "assuming that you have heard about him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

Ephesians 4: 21-24

Once you know better, do better.  By the time I got to step seven in my recovery journey, that is the narrative that played over and over in my head.  Like the verse above mentions, assuming you have heard the truth in the saving power of Jesus Christ, He then calls you to do better.  We are called to salvation and redemption by the power of His grace and mercy, but now He wants us to live in total freedom, and be molded more into His "likeness".  In step six we made a list of all of our shortcomings.  These are our defects of character.  This was the part that I realized not only had I done a lot of bad things in my life, but that ultimately all of this evil flowed from within me.  There was no shortcut, nor rationalization, nor blaming others for my issues, this is where I learned, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9).  And that is why after making a list and being ready to have all of our character defects be removed, in step seven, we then, humbly ask God to remove all of these defects.  At times the interjection of the word "humbly" in this step threw me for a loop.  Why can't we just "excitedly", or "joyfully", ask Him to remove these defects of character?  But, I realized that when we humbly do this step, we are doing it in a way, and a posture of heart, that says, 'God, I have a lot of problems, I realize all of these issues, thoughts, actions, and words, are coming from me, I need your help in removing them'.  We humbly ask because that is naturally going to be the posture of our heart if we are doing this step properly.  Being humble about our shortcomings means we are willing to put a name on them, admit them, realize we need help outside of ourselves, and then asking for it.  This step takes a full amount of humility because we are realizing our failures come from within, we can't blame them on others or outside circumstances.  The scripture above tells us that our deceitful desires are from our old self, so therefore, admit them, shine God's light on them, and be the creation made after God's own likeness, that He intends for you to be.  The Lord calls us to righteousness and holiness, He calls us to be molded to be more and more like Jesus, but first we need to humbly ask Him to clean us up, and cover us with His blood.  Today, pray and meditate on where you are falling short.  Ask the Lord to reveal to you your character defects, courageously become willing, in your heart, to put a name on them, shine God's light on them, and ask Him to do what He does best, clean us up!  Once we know better, then let's do better, people are counting on us!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!