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One theme I have consistently emphasized throughout my blogging is that society is immediate, and that surrendering that control is important to the process of obtaining peace with God. Although I have preached that sentiment for almost my entire adult life, I have struggled to put it into practice, often leading to regrettable mistakes that I deem uncontrollable.
I have explored several resources to continue to improve my wholistic self, and what I found through these efforts is that I am not only looking for routine improvements, which I have found and have found helpful, but I am also looking for Spiritual Formation improvements, which I found through reading John Ortberg’s Steps, which is a book and study series that is focused on the 12 Steps of Recovery that Alcoholics Anonymous has been famous for making popular in society. However, there has been a strong effort to “reclaim” those steps in a Christian mindset, including the work of Celebrate Recovery, and now Ortberg’s Steps text.
The purpose of this post is not to hail that I have taken steps of recovery, or even to proclaim that recovery is for everyone, but as Ortberg mentions, he did not anticipate when he first went to a recovery meeting 30 years ago that he specifically needed a traditional route to “recovery,” as many people in rehab processes would suggest. However, he left that meeting realizing that he had several issues in his life that would benefit from going through the 12 steps to process.
Early in the process, the 12 steps call us to “look beyond ourselves” by realizing that we can battle our hurts, hangups, and habits with the mindset that God will intercede on our behalf. Ortberg notes the phrase “but God,” which can offer hope in many situations. “I am struggling with (insert element here), but God in his goodness continues to use this struggle to refine me.” Paul discusses the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), which he could not get rid of, yet he continued to show faith in God and allow God to work through it.
Ortberg even suggests that our faith does not have to be perfect, but simply “Good enough.” He cites that Abraham continued to struggle despite providing enough faith for God to work on his behalf. At 75, Abraham doubted God’s promise of a child in his bloodline, so he tried to convince his cousin Lot and his servant, Eliezer, to have a child on his behalf; both attempts failed to complete the patriarchal process. Abraham then has a child, with his wife Sarah’s suggestion, with the younger servant, Hagar.
Eventually, Abraham and Sarah are blessed with their own child, Issac, which completes the patriarchal decree from God, but it did not come without turmoil and difficulty; the birth of Ishmael leads to numerous problems for Issac and the family line (see the middle of the book of Genesis), but eventually the line is blessed by God. Ortberg mentioned that what is often forgotten is that Abraham then has six more children with a new wife, Keturah, before Isaac and Rebecca have the twins that eventually continue the line through Jacob. So, it is not until the 10th “attempt”, if you will, that Abraham, despite all his self-controlling desires to use God’s promise, ends up showing just enough faith to satisfy God with that blessing. So no matter how often we fail in the midst of doing God’s call, he will continue to guide us if we show the faith of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:5-6).
Ortberg notes that we are not to mix up faith with certainty. Faith means surrendering to God’s plan amid ambiguity, not assuming God will certainly do what we ask of Him. God’s promise is greater than anything we could specifically mention on our own. But we all have something of what Ortberg calls a “spiritual detachment,” to the point that we often, in our sinful human condition, cannot fully process what God desires of us. He calls these “core doubts.” These include:
Doubting that God has power
Doubting that God is good
Doubting that God exists
Doubting that God intervenes
Doubting that people change
Doubting religion
(To find out more about these doubts, read Steps, pp. 47-48).
As Christians, we are called, in the words of theologian Gavin Ortlund, to trust in Him and not our thoughts about Him. This is a difficult mindset to overcome, but if we can truly pray to God to reveal himself in ways and actions that we do not perceive of Him in our own thought process, then we can truly be open to what he has for us, and not get caught up in overthinking what he wants from us. From my own testimony and many others, many can attest that God will continue to steer you toward good actions (Philippians 2:13) and help you resist temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
All of the aforementioned doubts can be calmed if we ask God to be with us daily. Ortberg even suggests a simple “be with me” prayer can help. It is simply about having the simple willingness to let God’s will be done. A posture of active serenity. Ortberg, Celebrate Recovery, AA, SA, and many other groups use The Serenity Prayer, written in the 1930s by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, which states:
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference
living one day at a time
enjoying one moment at a time
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace
taking as Jesus did
this sinful world as it is
not as I would have it
trusting that you would make all things right
if I surrender to your will
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with you forever in the next, Amen!
My prayer is that this prayer of serenity helps us posture ourselves to see God for who He is, not how we perceive Him. Amen!
Note: All elements from Ortberg’s “Steps” (2026) text were adapted from the first three steps (pp. 11-87).
