Step 3

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care and direction of God.

The first two steps in Sinner’s Anonymous only required acceptance. We accepted our wretched human condition, and we accepted that only God has the power to transform our lives into abundant, fruitful, Christian lives. We accepted that He has given us access to that power through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Now, Step 3 calls out for action, and it comes in the form of surrender.

The first three steps can be looked at like this:

Step 1 – I can’t.

Step 2 – He can.

Step 3 – I think I’ll let Him.

The world suggests that we can be self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-directed, self-propelled, and a self-made man. You can be the “master of your destiny.” You can even be a bit self-seeking and self-serving, if it gets you to where you want to be. People may tell us that we need more self-love, self-esteem, and self-confidence. It’s all a lie. The Bible tells us a very different story.

The Bible says that we need to be God-reliant, God-sufficient, God-directed, God-propelled, and a God-made man. God must be the Master of our destiny. We need to be God-seeking and God-serving, so He can lead us to where He wants us to be. We need God’s love, God’s esteem, and confidence in Him --not in ourselves. –And we certainly don’t need any self-help. We need God’s help.

So, in Step 3 we are making a decision to turn from a self-centered life to a God-centered life. –And it begins with trust.

Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

And Jesus said:

John 14:1 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me.

Leaning on my own understanding can be a problem for me. Sometimes, I can still think that I might know what is best for me better than the all-knowing, All-mighty God. To be honest, when I lean on my own understanding, it is usually because I am afraid that God’s will might not be my will in a given situation, and I have become determined to see my will be done.

God promises that He will provide the right direction, if we seek His direction. To seek and follow His direction without reservation, we have to trust Him. If we trust Him with all of our heart and follow Him in all our ways, then He will be faithful to make our paths straight.

Where will our own understanding and our self-will take us anyway?

Proverbs 14:12 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

And where will the world's understanding take us?

1 John 2:17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Practicing Step 3 also requires willingness. We humans have a tendency to want to be in control of our lives and our destinies. So, we will need to ask God for direction as well as the willingness to follow His direction.

Psalms 32:8-10 - I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him.

God the Loving Father

Romans 8:14-16 – because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Something that will help us to be willing to make a decision of surrender everyday is understanding and trusting God as a perfect, loving Father. If we believe that God is all-knowing, then we must believe that He certainly knows what’s best for us. When we begin to have a loving Father and son relationship with God, we can begin to trust Him with our lives.

Isaiah 43:1-3 - "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Psalms 91:14-16 – "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My Name. 15 He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him My Salvation."

Romans 8:31-32 – What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all --how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?

God has set rules in place because He loves us and wants to protect us from the world and ourselves. God is on our side. He is for us! He wants what is best for us, and He wants to protect us and lead us to where we are supposed to be (to the Promised Land) spiritually, mentally, and physically. The road to the Promised Land will also require obedience:

Isaiah 1:18-20 - "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; 20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The children of Israel definitely had some rebellion issues. They simply refused to surrender their wills and their lives over to the care and direction of God. God wanted to lead them into the Promised Land, to provide a land flowing with milk and honey where He would bless them abundantly; but they were unwilling to enter. They didn't trust Him. God said that He would destroy their enemies before them, but they didn't believe Him. God said that He would bring the victory if they went up against their enemies in faith, but they were unwilling to move forward. So the children of Israel wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief, lack of trust, disobedience, and unwillingness to surrender themselves to God's care and direction. But God is so gracious, loving, and patient that again He brought them to the edge of the Promised Land and gave them a choice:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 - 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We still have the same God today, and He still wants to lead us into the Promised Land --the full and abundant life here on earth, and the eternal life of paradise in the hereafter. We begin our journey to the Promised Land by trusting Him and becoming willing to follow Him to the Promised Land.

Now I realize that a whole lifetime geared to self-will cannot be set in reverse all at once. Rebellion and our sin nature will dog our every step at first. Step 3 only begins as a decision, but it should turn into a daily process of moment by moment surrender to God by which we live our lives.

Jesus said:

Luke 9:23-24 - "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it."

John 12 24-26 – I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me.

If we are having trouble with Step 3, we can ask God for the willingness to surrender our will and life to Him. We can also ask Him to help us be willing to place Him first in our lives and to help us want for ourselves only what He wants for us.

The bottom line is that if we refuse to put God first in our lives, we will deprive ourselves of His help. If we want Him to transform our lives, we must get rid of this notion that we can just live our own lives with the Spirit of the triune God indwelling our mortal bodies to help us out a little here and there. If we truly want God to empower us to live the full and abundant Christian life, we must at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.

In Step 1, we accepted the fact that we cannot live the full and abundant life by our own power. In Step 2, we came to believe that God can and will provide the power to live the abundant life through His Spirit in us. Even though the Holy Spirit is present in every authentic, spiritually regenerated believer, He does not always have the kind of relationship with the believer that allows Him to do everything in and through the believer that He would like to. In order for that to occur we need to be filled with the Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit requires our submission to Him, and Step 3 is a great place to start. If our lives and wills are surrendered to God, and our desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit is motivated by a longing to live obediently and be useful for God’s purposes, then we will be properly internally positioned to ask the Holy Spirit to fill our lives.

When we are willing to take Step 3, our prayer might sound something like this:

God, I offer myself to You-- to build with me and do with me as You will. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Your will. Holy Spirit, fill my life. Bear fruit in me to show the world Your Love, Your Peace, Your Power, and Your Way of Life. Help me to seek and follow Your will always. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

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