Spiritual Muscles
Our willingness to take action for our own recovery, combined with our willingness to let God remove traits that no longer serve us, gives us spiritual muscles to continue our spiritual growth.
Last week I was in a situation where my controlling usually activates automatically. My daughter shared a problem and I felt the impulse to take it over, solve it, manage it. But I paused. Prayed one sentence: God help me stay in my own business. And then I just listened. Afterward I felt shaky but proud. My sponsor said: You're building spiritual muscles.
Our willingness to take action for our own recovery combined with our willingness to let God remove traits that no longer serve us gives us spiritual muscles to continue our spiritual growth. Spiritual muscles. Not instant transformation but gradual strengthening through repeated practice. Each time I ask God for help and then cooperate by choosing differently I'm building capacity I didn't have before. The first time I stepped back from controlling felt impossible. The twentieth time felt slightly less impossible. The fiftieth time I was shaky but I could do it.
These spiritual muscles I'm building in Step Seven will carry me through the remaining Steps. The willingness to take action - to actually pray, to choose new responses, to cooperate rather than passively wait - combined with willingness to let God work creates strength. Not my strength alone. Not God's work alone. The combination of my action and God's power building capacity for the harder work ahead. That's what spiritual muscles means. And they only develop through use not through waiting.
When I successfully cooperate with God by choosing a new response, I can acknowledge out loud: I'm building spiritual muscles. This shaky success is strength developing. Each choice to ask God for help and then act differently builds capacity I'll need for future growth. I can celebrate the uncomfortable success.
