Thursday 24 March 2016

Being powerless brings peace to no one

This is a post from MySpace back in the day. It appears to be an article by the Bible-believing church Grace Community Church (Ministries Community Care Teaching)

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” – Revelation, 21:7.

"As long as there are men who seek to be free from their masters there will be no such thing as peace."

"Being powerless brings peace to no one." ..............( myspace.com/wethesheeple )

"We admitted we were powerless over our Hurts, Habits and Hang ups and that our lives had become unmanageable."

"I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it." (Mark 10: 15).

Powerlessness: Inner change B the key to Life change recovery

Powerlessness: What does 'unmanageable' look like?

Powerlessness: What role does shame play in powerlessness?

"Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the Earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of His understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless." (Isaiah 40: 28,29).

Powerlessness

G ‑ Good
O ‑ Orderly
D ‑ Direction

Denial/Acceptance/Powerlessness

Denial
Acceptance
Powerlessness

The following are items for reflection and discussion in the form of a weekly log with spaces (removed) beneath each word.

Denial
Acceptance
Powerlessness

Denial/Acceptance/Powerlessness

Denial
Acceptance
Powerlessness
Denial
Acceptance
Powerlessness
Denial
Acceptance
Abstinence
Abstinence
Abstinence

Powerlessness Cycle

Increasing
Desire
Crave
Want
Plateau
Trigger
Releasing
Trigger
Quieting (or Quitting?
Emotional Abuse
Divorce
Grief
Illness
Infertility
Physical Abuse
Sexual Abuse

What is a 180 Lifechange?

Habits
Hurts
Hang‑ups
Anger
Bitterness
Blame
Codependency
Forgiveness
Perfectionism
Substances
Eating Disorders
Gambling
Spending
Sexual Integrity Issues

Week 4; Denial; 5/22/08


To most of us the idea of powerlessness and our lives being unmanageable are at first a bit overwhelming. For some of us very overwhelming! It is threatening to our sense of self.

It is when we begin to see our lives as the actually are that we begin to have movement into Life change recovery. Tonight we are going to talk about what that movement is and what it looks like for each of us. There are some common dynamics in this movement even in the unique dynamics and differences of unmanageablilty in our lives.

One dynamic each of us can look at is the answer to this question: Is our behavior producing peace and serenity into our life?

Often our background, our family of origin and other life experiences combined with impact of our hurts, habits and hang ups undermine, undercut our best plans, desires and dreams.

For many of us here memories of our childhood have aspects of fear that are associated with being powerless. Growing up in a family out of control with family rules that were crazy can make the thought of powerlessness very frightening. We may have made a vow to never again be as vulnerable as we were when we were children.

In Mark 10:15 we are called to become like little children and this involves powerlessness. This is about trusting someone other than ourselves who is more powerful than we are to help us do what we cannot do ourselves. Like a child who needs love, care and nurture. In life change recovery you will hear the phrases 'your higher power' and 'God as you understand Him.'

The key idea here is in order to have movement in abstaining from our Hurts, habits, and hang ups we must admit that we are truly powerless to do it on our own and that this admission is a positive, healthy step towards life change recovery.

Many times we have ended at a place where we have lost touched with God and ourselves. I believe tonight will help us bring movement towards our understanding of God and the truth of who each of are as we begin to set down, to abstain from our Hurt, Habits and Hang ups.

Admission is the passport to crossover into life change recovery that brings us into the process of having a belief about ourselves and our life that guides us to new choices, new actions on our choices which give us new results and new beliefs.

Stop and go back to before you had any awareness of your having a hurt, habit or hang up. Who did you believe you were then compared to who you believe you are now?

What changed? Wasn't it your choices and actions that have brought results to your life that have undermined your understanding of yourself, your life and what is possible for you?

Your higher power, through circumstances, people in your life or in some other manner, has brought you to this place and time tonight. No matter how many outside sources we have or will seek out, there will be no true relief until we, by ourselves, acknowledge our powerlessness. To surrender the idea that we have the ability, the power to change our behavior without clearing out the inner guilt, resentment and fears we are carrying in our souls.

This is what we mean by having an inner change. My experience has been those who embrace this 5 part process, the 12 steps of life change recovery, journey into inner change, this works if you work it and each of us are worth it!

Our lives have become 'unmanageable.' What does unmanageable look like for you? Admitting, acknowledging this, is part of breaking through denial and accepting our powerlessness.

We all want to feel good about ourselves and our relationships with others..

We all want to have choices about our lives and our future.

Yet we may find that our quality of life is deteriorating. Problems with work, relationships and our health may be increasing.

Our hurts, habits and hang ups may be shaping our lives as we have adapted to the impact our hurts, habits and hangups have on our lives.

We may be staying home more, or acting strong and angry to others. We may be outlining our daily schedule to have access to a substance or behavior.

It may be as subtle as pornography or binge eating impacting the quality of your intimacy with your spouse or as blatant as gambling or compulsive spending wrecking your finances.

As subtle as avoiding activities and people who you fear may 'find you out' to as blatant as losing your drivers license due to alcohol.

Each of us have our own level of unmanageablilty we are willing to accept in our denial. That is why it is personal surrender to our higher power, to god as I understand Him, that brings us to the place of becoming willing to accept powerlessness and began life change recovery.

Our pain is part of what we all have in common but our tolerance to the pain in our lives is an individual decision.

There are all kinds of barriers that keep us from being willing to admit powerlessness and our lives being unmanageable.

A big barrier is Shame: definition: I am wrong. Not that I have done wrong, but that I am wrong. Think about this 5 part process we talk about.

What is your belief about yourself? You may have been doing wrong in your h.h.h. There is some true guilt there. The choices you have made, the actions taken and the results you have gotten have deteriorated your life. If you are at a place where your belief about yourself is that your h.h.h. has defined you to a point where you believe you are wrong ‑ you can surrender that belief about yourself to you higher power, God as you understand him.

Last week I mentioned God's part and our part. This set of verses from the book of Isiah speak to God's part for us. It addresses our powerlessness and the power of God's part that is there for us if we surrender to it.

A key idea: We were created as human beings, not human doings. If we surrender who we are to god's part, He will empower us in doing our part and it will no longer define us.

The next slide shows us how this can work.

This is one helpful way to think about our higher power.

It is a simple concept of having good orderly direction in our lives. To bring movement towards abstaining from our hhh.

The 180 Xchange is about trusting a process to stop self‑defeating, self destructive behaviors and attitudes that bring chaos, defeat and despair to your life no matter what your hhh is.

To start practicing new ways of thinking and acting that lead to life change recovery.

This Good orderly direction is not new to us. We have practiced it in most areas of our life. Brushing our teeth, cleaning our clothes, getting to work.

We can apply it to moving away from, from abstaining from our HHH as we admit our powerlessness, begin abstaining and have our lives become more manageable.

The next 2 slides show what we have experienced with our hhh and what we can experience as we work the 5 part process of the 12 steps of life change recovery..

Spiral of denial, powerlessness and unmanageabilty.

Movement towards life change recovery by cycling through denial, acceptance, powerlessness as we abstain from our HHH.

The next slide shows how this cycle works.

Describe this.

Next week we will look at the hope and sanity cycle as we abstain and work the 5 part process of the 12 steps of life change recovery.


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