***Due to a lack of support and financial means we are suspending services at Recovery Christian Center until the 3rd Saturday in May. We are going to be doing some community events and outreach in the neighborhood prior to the relaunch. We are asking for your prayers and support and we will keep you posted on our status***

Recovery Christian Center Daily Meditation - 4/10/12 - Step 10 - Renewing Our Minds

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us." Romans 12:1-3 NLT

Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

A line of this same text in the King James Version says "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,". There is a reason that renewing is in the present tense. We need to constantly be taking a look at our thinking, our actions, and our behavior. Since we are never going to be perfect, as we progress we will always find something new to work on and those things will require God's renewal.

The text also cautions us to, "Be honest in our evaluation of yourselves," because we are always in danger of being in denial of our shortcomings. Our ego can look at where we came from and where we are at now and only see the improvements, but if we look at where we are now and compare it to where God wants us to be we can get a more accurate spiritual barometer. God is mostly pleased with our progress but there is still much more to do. We have to be willing to continue to look at ourselves honestly and see where we are still falling short.

Plus the more we evaluate ourselves and honestly take a look at us, and go to God before the feelings and thinking becomes actions the less we will have to make amends for. God loves us and wants to help us grow. In the previous nine steps we have dealt with our past. Now we must continue to look at ourselves in the present to make sure the past doesn't try again to dictate our present and that new shortcomings don't move us to far off track in the here and now.