Step 3: Trust in God

The saying “caught between a rock and a hard place” is a great way to summarize addiction. The rock in this situation is the ideal life. Doing all the right things in all the right ways. No more addiction because it’s gone. Serving with a great attitude and smiling everywhere. On the other side is the hard place. Let’s consider addiction the hard place. It’s a life that is well-known and difficult to let go of. It’s a place where addicts ‘think’ it is safe when in reality, it isn’t.

So, what is a person to do? The solution might not be what you think. With this ideal life and addiction bearing down, the best thing to do is look up and stop holding on to either side. Looking up is symbolic of the idea of letting God step in and direct. By letting go of both sides and giving it up to God, you give to God the one thing that is truly yours to give: your agency.

Elder Neil A Maxwell, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said: “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. It is a hard doctrine, but it is true. The many other things we give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually things He has already given us, and He has loaned them to us. But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him.” (”Insights from My Life”, Ensign, Aug 2000)

This is what step 3 is all about. Learning to give it up to God and allowing Him to lead. It seems simple, but it isn’t. There were many times when I initially gave my agency to God, but I found that I had taken it back because I wanted to be in control. What I was really saying was I didn’t trust my Father in Heaven and my Savior, Jesus Christ. It took a lot of time and effort to finally place my agency on God’s altar, as Elder Maxwell put it so well.

After a while, I learned the best place for my agency was on God’s altar. Why? Because God can do more with me when I allow Him to lead than I can do with me with my own efforts. I promise you that when you learn to trust in God and allow Him to lead, your life will have more peace and meaning than you ever imagined!

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