There is a prayer that I learned in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous called the Third Step Prayer and it goes as follows:
God, I offer myself to Thee-
To build with me
and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self,
that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
that victory over them may bear witness
to those I would help of Thy Power,
Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!
This prayer is used prior to someone making an admission of all the sin that is in their lives; without God it is very difficult to look at those very ugly things that are inside of each one of us. So, having been out of AA for roughly six months ( I did not relapse) and just going back recently I decided that I was going to stay focused on what is from Christ rather than stay focused on what is not. I came to realize that while I was gone I started building resentments against people, was sitting on the pity pot and had become very needy and unfortunately manipulative. Now, I am not in any way shape or form stating that AA is what keeps me sober (it is not just absence of alcohol); it is the Holy Spirit that dwells within me. There is a wonderful thing that takes place in the rooms of AA and that is accountability. People are not afraid to tell you when "your slip is showing"; they will call you on your pride, they will not sit on the pity pot with you; most times it is done in love...sometimes it is not.
I started meditating on this particular prayer today and have not gotten beyond the word offer. To fully understand what this prayer means I need to know what each word means. I had always thought of the word offer to mean to freely give, which it does also mean that. To see the words :To present as an act of worship or devotion! Wow, man that hit me so hard. Romans 12:1 "Therefore I urge your brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."
What does it really mean to offer myself to God as a daily sacrifice, to do with me as He wills? Offering myself to Him means that I freely give myself to Him in and act of devotion, in an act of love to use me, to allow me to be His vessel. The sacrifice on my part means that IT IS NOT ABOUT ME!!! Okay, I said it...yes, it is not about me. Period. What kind of sacrifice am I giving my God if in my offering of myself to Him do I want to take some credit; you know pat ME on the back because I said yes to God and that is why you are getting better. Pleas! How sin has completely warped our minds. So for today I am going to move from being self centered to God centered and remember that It's not all about me.
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