Bill W:
If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at
the root of it some unhealthy dependency and its consequent unhealthy demand.
Let us, with God’s help, continually surrender these hobbling
demands. Then we can be set free to live and love; we may then be able to
Twelfth Step ourselves and others into emotional sobriety.
Al Kohallek:
Contemplative practice is the highest form of prayer; being still and
letting our Father do the work. If only a few moments of “dying”, surrendering
our personal “reality”, with its illusion of separation, in order to experience
the Indwelling Presence, the Christ within. Letting go of the false self in
order to experience the True Self, and to realize our inherent union with our
Creator.
+++++
Each time one of my defects was transformed into a workable asset, I had to
go through the “Dark Night of the Soul” where everything stops working as it
was. I had to accept my powerlessness to change and surrender all
I understood as me.
+++++
By practising AA’s spiritual principles, I have a choice, to surrender
my negative, useless/harmful thoughts, feelings and ideas even when I feel
they’re “justified.” Now, that’s the hero’s way.
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I will not delay any longer. The crisis of faith is the time to ask for
help and surrender.
Bob E:
Everyone had to make a complete surrender to join in the
first place, and so we had no reservations; we worked the whole programme, 100
percent.
Chuck C:
They’re obsessions of the mind. And the only way to get rid of them is to
get rid of the human ego, in surrender.
Joe McF:
When we were new, busted, disgusted, and not to be trusted, we surrendered
unconditionally. What is unconditional surrender? That means you
don’t read and analyse the surrender document: you sign it.
+++++
Seek God’s will in ALL affairs … even the ones—or rather especially the
ones—that appear to have the ability to hurt, threaten, interfere with, or
affect my security. God Is, things are, face Reality. Give up my ‘want to win’
(personality—who’s right) and trust the God Principle (WHAT is right). I have
to stop playing God (it didn’t/doesn’t work). This means the destruction of
self and all things I hold dearly—either God (not Joe) is everything or He is
nothing. What is Joe’s choice to be? (The action I take is my answer). IN
SHORT, SURRENDERING (aka trusting, really trusting God’s will)
DOESN’T ALWAYS FEEL GOOD TO ME—as Bob Olson says, ‘the hardest thing about
trusting God, is trusting God … what you’re really having trouble doing, if
you’re honest with yourself, is trusting God to do what you want! You want your
cake and eat it too.’
+++++
Holding on to deeply ingrained old ideas, attitudes and beliefs is hard
business—almost as hard as letting go and surrendering them,
isn’t it? We say ‘Let go and let God’. But do we practise actually doing that?
We often hold on to our old selves, and we hold on so tightly that we don’t
leave room for the new to come into our experience. It’s hard to surrender,
but it’s well to do it; you’re not surrendering to just anything,
you’re surrendering to that Spirit within you so as to move in
the right direction in your life.
A minister once said, ‘I surrender all that I am, all that I
can be and all that I can do, to you, God,’ and he would change it a little bit
each day but basically, that was it. He would always have a prayer practice of surrender,
of letting go. Because he knew that only by letting go could he move into a
higher level of understanding, and feeling and experiencing God’s presence.
So probably the greatest model of letting go is that of Jesus in the Garden
of Gethsemane: ‘My heart is sorrowful unto death. Father, you can do all
things. Remove this cup from me, but yet not my will but your will be done’. He
didn’t want to go through the experience he knew was ahead of him, he knew
there was some terrible ordeal he’d have to face. He didn’t know exactly what
at that time, just that he would rather not have to deal with it. But he gave
way to the movement of Spirit within him and said, ‘Yet not my will but your
will be done’. There was willingness within him.
We all have a miracle power within us, an unconquerable force that, if we
are willing and practise connecting with it, will use us and work through us in
wonderful ways. Jesus trusted that, he was trusting God in that moment when he
had to surrender everything. I pray that none of us will never
have to come to that level of giving up and surrendering
everything. But it is a model to remember, if he could do that in the moment
that he was in then we can do that in any moment in which we find ourselves.
Spiritual Paul:
Self was a liar, belittled me, criticised me, was greedy. It was never
satisfied with anything I did. That’s what needed to be surrendered.
Earl Purdy:
I want to be a person who either shuts up or says loving things. The
thoughts I want to become strong and manifest are the ones I’m going to share.
I do not need to deny those negative thoughts: I need to admit and surrender
them to the Holy Spirit, and say that I am misperceiving them, then listen for
how the Holy Spirit reinterprets those, for instance by seeing others’
behaviour as calls for love. You can feel all the justification you want to
attack people, but you’re increasing that attack thought in your own life, so
you’re just increasing the anger and upset in your life, so don’t be surprised
when you attract those experiences in your life. Instead: let the sane part of
you reinterpret those thoughts so they are loving thoughts, and then you can share
them.
+++++
When you discover circumstances you do not like, say: ‘I did it. I must
undo it. But I don’t know how I did it. Therefore I must surrender.’
You have not changed your mind if you are still trying to choose among
illusions, by trying to understand based on past experience what the problem is
and how to correct it. Every time you try to correct a problem based on a past
experience you will recreate the problem. When you reach the limit you must
say: ‘there must be a better way’.
Brother Lawrence:
Brother Lawrence said we ought, once and for all, heartily put our whole
trust in God, and make a total surrender of ourselves to Him,
secure that He would not deceive us. We ought not weary of doing little things
for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love
with which it is performed. We should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often
failed in our endeavours, but that at last we should gain a habit which will
naturally produce its acts in us without our care and to our exceeding great
delight.
Andrew Murray:
Imagine God saying: “Live in me. Think how completely I belong to you. I
have joined myself inseparably to you. Once you are in me, be assured that all
I have is yours. It is in my interest and honour to have you live fruitfully.
Just live in me. You are weak, but I am strong; you are poor, but I am rich.
Just live in me. Surrender wholly to my inspiration and
direction. Just trust my love, grace, and promises. Just believe. I am totally
yours. I am the vine; you are the branch. Live in me.”
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