11. Why Submit?

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13 (NIV)

It is not enough to simply admit that our way of handling problems do not work. There is a component in most species where at some point in the course of fight or flight that they somehow realize that the struggle against an insurmountable foe is futile and it is time to “admit” defeat and give up the fight. That is the admission of powerlessness. Giving up the fight can mean we remain there to die, or we can submit to the care of a higher power to help win the fight. So at the heart of admitting our inadequacy and need is submission to a source of authority, power and strength that is not only bigger and stronger than we are, but is bigger and stronger than our adversary.

It is the constant learning process of letting go of our independence from God in order to grow in depending on God that leads to independence from the things that hold us captive. Jesus said, “I am the way,” yet we remain captive in our addictive lifestyle when we do not recognize him. As long as we perceive that our ways work, like the bird looking through a glass window as a clear path to relief and freedom, we tend to hold on and pursue recovery in our own strength. Yet when we let go and rest in the palm of God’s hand to carry us through, there is deliverance for us into a place of recovery as God restores our broken lives and puts us back together again.

Insanity is generally described as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. What this means is that we tend to attempt to resolve difficult circumstances in our lives the same we did before, except that this time the result will be different in that our difficulty to be resolved and we will feel better. Then, when it doesn’t get better and our problem isn’t resolved, we do the same thing again, perhaps with more intensity, to try and solve our problem. And again, it does not work.

You can continue to attempt to solve your problems your way in an effort to remove the difficult obstacles from your life; or you can choose to let go and turn your obstacles and problems over to Jesus Christ who experienced the most severe of problems in order to be your rescuer as Savior of your life. NLX 101 will encourage and challenge through a poignant story of a bird’s journey through insanity into freedom (“Bird Whisperer”) followed by thought-provoking questions to help participants realize the sensibility of cognitive-behavioral recovery God’s way. “Your way (insanity) or God’s way (recovery that works)… the choice is yours. How will you choose today?”

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