POWERLESS Principle 1: Realize I'm not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.

"Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor."

Matthew 5:3a (TEV)

Step 1:

We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry

PRIDE – Ignorance + pride + power = a deadly mixture

Proverbs 29: 23 - "Pride ends in a fall, while humility brings honor."

ONLY IFS - keep us trapped in a fantasyland of rationalization

Luke 12: 23 - "Whatever is covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. So then, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in broad daylight."

WORRYING – a form of not trusting God enough

Matthew 6:34 - "Don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time."

What is worry? It is defined as, "to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret. To torment with cares, anxieties, etc.

ESCAPE –a world of fantasy and unrealistic expectations of us and others

Ephesians 5: 13, 14 - "For the light is capable of showing up everything for what it really is. It is possible for the light to turn the thing it shines upon into light also."

RESENTMENTS – an emotional cancer if allowed to fester and grow

Ephesians 4: 26-27 - "In your anger do not sin ... do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."

LONELINESS – In recovery and in Christ, we never have to walk alone

Hebrews 13: 1, 2 - "Continue to love each other with true brotherly love. Don't forget to be kind to strangers, fos some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it."

EMPTINESS

John 10:10 - "My purpose is to give life in all its fullness."

SELFISHNESS – we often pray, our father who art in heaven, gimme gimme

Luke 17:33 - "Whoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall save it."

SEPARATION – some talk of finding God, as if he could ever get lost

Romans 8: 38, 39 - "For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't and life can't. The angels won't and all the powers of hell itslef cannot keep God's love away ... Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when He died for us."