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Hurts Habits & Hang Ups

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Finding Hope and Healing

SESSION ONE

Step 1 - Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your hurts, Habits and Hangups and that with them, your life has become unmanageable.

For many people, the idea, even the word ‘powerless’, causes an immediate reaction. Everything in modern society teaches us that if we are powerless, we are vulnerable. To be without power is to be hurt and taken advantage of. It is to be weak and helpless. Society tells us we are to be strong, powerful and to take charge of our life. And yet these “thorns in the flesh” remind us, daily, that we are not.

So, we spend many years trying to ‘take charge’ of our life, only to find that we maintain a constant string of weaknesses and dysfunctional habits that drain spirituality from our lives and hurt those around us. We have tried valiantly, by sheer willpower, to cleanse those flaws from our lives only to have them haunt us.

Finally, we have been forced to admit that we are unable to remove these destructive elements without help. We know this because we’ve tried everything without success.

We cannot access the liberating power of the atonement without first admitting—and believing—we are unable to change on our own. We are finding that we need Him “every hour”, if we are to have painful weaknesses removed.

In truth, the more we struggle with our hurts and habits, the more it should be clear that we’ve never gotten past Step 1. We needed to first surrender our pride, our need to be control. To do that, we came to recognize our powerlessness but also came to experience the Lord’s desire to empower us.

None of the other steps will be of value to us unless we first allow Him to take over the management of our private battles. And, at times, we will find ourselves struggling and realize that we are again back to Step 1. It will happen over and over again, not because we’re failing, but because we’re growing and needed the insights gained from Step 1 to move us forward.

What does surrender mean? What does it look or feel like? How do we know we’re there?

We are surrendered when we are more interested in His solutions to our problems than we are in ours. We want His loving answers, recognizing that our solutions often create more problems for ourselves.

We are surrendered when we spend more time listening in our prayers than telling the Lord what needs to happen.

We are surrendered when thoughts of the Savior and the Atonement fill us with a sense of gratitude and awe and love.

We are surrendered when inspired thoughts fill our hearts about what we need to do—and we do them rather than question endlessly our abilities or His wisdom.

We are surrendered when we are content with the idea that we are “less than the dust of the earth” and that the Savior’s infinite Intervention will someday bestow on us “all that God has.”

We are surrendered when we see we have no room to judge others, given the amount of divine mercy extended us. We simply pray the Lord will forgive them as he has us.

We are surrendered when we quite trying to perfect ourselves and allow him to polish us in his way and in his time.

We are surrendered when we begin to feel a measure of peace and hope that reminds us that when it is in our best interest, our hurts, habits and hang-ups will be removed from us; not because our own efforts but because of His love.

Read and Ponder

Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness. (Alma 27:18

· In your life, what has prevented you from attaining the happiness you seek? _____________________________________________________________________________________________

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Yea, I know that I am nothing: as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will not boast of myself , but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things. (Alma 26:11-12)

· In your ‘heart of hearts’, how much do you trust the Lord? At what times do you trust him the least?

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· In the past, what has happened to you when you were ‘weak’?

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“…there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me…For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me….and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee…” (2 Cor 12: 7-9)

· What ‘thorns’ have you been given that seem to ‘buffet’ you the most?

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Notes and Ideas:

Recorded Session 1 Hurts, Habits & Hangups with Kevin Hinckley and Christi Turley