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A crucial part of recovery happens in Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2 Powerless because you learn that you are
not alone on this journey toward recovery. Once you learn that you are not in control of everything, you can
move forward on your road to recovery.
If you feel distant from God or lack the motivation to trust Him with your life, try reading the Bible more
(listening to what God wants to tell you) and praying consistently (talking to God). This kind of
communication is essential in making positive steps toward recovery.
Celebrate Recovery lesson two is a necessary lesson because it allows you to put your faith in the Lord –
the key to ending worry, anxiety, and many of your fears!
As it corresponds with Step 1 from Alcoholics Anonymous and Celebrate Recovery, it also goes with Celebrate
Recovery’s principle 1.
Read Celebrate Recovery Lesson 1 – Denial before reading this article so that you can do everything in order.
Describe how you have stepped out of denial when you start this lesson.
To join in this lesson, you don’t have to be a part of any group ahead of time. This is meant for anyone with
hurts, habits, and hangups.
You don’t need specific knowledge or experience to get started today! This is the second lesson, and you
really don’t even need the book. It’s a smart idea to have a pen and notepad to write down your answers to
the questions in this article and those found in the free study guide that goes with this lesson.
Get started on your road to recovery today to reap the many benefits of Celebrate Recovery!
Table of Contents
1. What is Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2: Powerless?
2. What Does “Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2” Mean?
3. What Does Powerless Mean?
4. What Can We Do About Powerlessness?
5. Celebrate Recovery Lesson Two Highlights
5.1. Lesson 2 Notes
5.2. 1. Pride prevents us from admitting our problems.
5.3. 2. Unrealistic expectations or fantasyland keep us trapped.
5.4. 3. Worrying too much prevents us from trusting God.
5.5. 4. Resentments make us stuck.
5.6. 5. Loneliness can prevent us from moving forward.
5.7. 6. Selfishness and separation stop us from growing with God.
5.8. Lesson 2 Questions
6. More Helpful Celebrate Recovery Resources
6.1. Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2 Scriptures
6.2. A CR Video – Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2: Powerless
6.3. Free Recovery Lesson 2 Study Guide
7. My Story – In Relation to Celebrate Recovery Lesson Two
7.1. My Thoughts & Suggestions on Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2
8. Frequently Asked Questions
8.1. What are the 12 steps in Celebrate Recovery?
8.2. What is the Serenity Prayer?
8.3. What are the 8 principles of Celebrate Recovery?
8.4. How do you begin to address your powerlessness?
8.5. What is the importance of admitting you are powerless?
9. Conclusion
Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor. – Matthew 5:3
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do
what is good, but I cannot carry it out. – Romans 7:18
Prid e
Onl y Ifs
Wo rry
Esc ape
Res entments Loneliness
Em ptiness
Self ishness Separation
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Celebrate Recovery is a 12-step, Christ-centered recovery program for anyone who has hurts, habits, or hangups.
And the truth is, we all have those! Whether you’ve had problems with drugs or alcohol or just need some
support and encouragement in your life, CR is the place for you.
The lessons that will be discussed in these articles about Celebrate Recovery are from John Baker’s Celebrate
Recovery Participant’s Guide. The first 6 lessons come from Stepping Out of Denial into God’s Grace:
Participant’s Guide 1. When you first join a step study, you can buy the guide from your group leader.
The Celebrate Recovery leader guide might be slightly different from the participant’s guide, but both were
made by Rick Warren and John Baker as part of the CR curriculum. The curriculum is based on the Beatitudes,
so when you learn about the Celebrate Recovery 8 principles, you will reference those scriptures in the New
Testament.
Now that you understand your problem and what you have power over and what you don’t, you can accept
your situation and turn to God for help!
Now is the time to admit you are powerless over the things that rob you of the serenity you are so desperately
seeking. Let’s look at what can stand in our way of admitting we are powerless to control our tendency to do the
wrong thing.
I encourage you to discuss these things and how they affect you in your small group, step study, or in a
notebook if you choose to keep one. Just get it all out on paper!
Doesn’t it feel better to just trust God with the things we cannot control and the things we do not understand
instead of filling ourselves with worry and anxiety?
Take the present moment to focus on your relationship with God. Go to Bible studies, read your Bible, trust
Him, and believe that His plan for your life is better than yours. There is a meaning for His timing of things.
If you aren’t sure what God is saying back to you, it’s time to break out the Bible. Bible reading and study can
show your heart what God is communicating back to you. His word is how we hear what He wants us to know.
Forgive easily, just as you are forgiven by God. Allow resentments to fest and grow, and they will multiply like
cancer cells!
You need connections with other people to get past your troubles. God encourages us to lean on one another
for support and encouragement.
With Jesus by your side, you never have to be alone again. Welcome Him into your heart so that you can be
forever blessed with Him by your side. If you permit empty feelings and loneliness to grow inside of you, you will
begin to feel hopeless.
If you feel hopeless, you need to reach out to your Celebrate Recovery group! Those friends are there to
support and lift you up!
Also, don’t forget that He is always there for you. You are not alone in this world. The Holy Spirit is always with
you. You just need to have faith and know that God has your back.
Lesson 2 Questions
In what ways has your pride stopped you from asking for help and stopped you from getting the help
you need to overcome your hurts, hang-ups, and habits?
What, in your past, has caused you to have the “if only” statements?
What are you worried about that you should let God control?
In what ways have you tried to escape your past pain?
How has holding onto your anger and resentment affected you?
Do you think that loneliness is a choice?
How has your denial isolated you from important relationships?
What is the emptiness you have felt, and what does it feel like?
What are some new ways you are finding to fill that emptiness?
In what areas of your life have you been selfish?
What can you do to get closer to God?
More Helpful Celebrate Recovery Resources
Celebrate Recovery Lesson 2 Scriptures
You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there! – Jeremiah 6:14
If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. – Ecclesiastes 11:4
My heart is troubled and restless. Waves of affliction have come upon me. – Job 30:27
Before every man, there lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death. – Proverbs
14:12
My good days are in the past. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken. – Job 17:11
I am worn out with pain; every night, my pillow is wet with tears. My eyes are growing old and
dim with grief because of all my enemies. – Psalm 6:6-7
We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves. – 2 Corinthians 1:9
I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t
want to—what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience
proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. But I can’t help myself because
I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil
things. – Romans 7:15-17
These verses came from The Living Bible and the Celebrate Recovery Study Guide.
My name is Michele. I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ, and I struggle with workaholism, perfectionism,
codependency, and anxiety. I celebrate recovery from an addiction to men and alcoholism.
Pride has affected my recovery because it has prevented me from allowing God to do His work in my life, and
many times, I have failed to trust Him with decisions. I often don’t want to ask God for help because I’m afraid
if I admit my shortcomings, I will be held accountable for not changing the way I am. Change is hard!
I used to worry all the time about everything instead of laying all my fears and anxiety at the feet of God. I had
trouble trusting God’s plan for my life. I’ve always struggled with impatience, so His timing was not good
enough for me. Now, I am able to see the magical things He was doing in my life.
I now trust God and His plan for my life, regardless of the struggles that come my way. Those are just more
things I can ask Him for help with. One thing I need to work on is trusting His timing, not mine. Patience is a skill
I need to work on.
1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had
become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or
others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for
knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.
12. Having a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to
practice these principles in all our affairs.
The Celebrate Recovery Serenity Prayer says: 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. This prayer is also used in
Alcoholics Anonymous. Grab a free printable of this prayer!
What are the 8 principles of Celebrate Recovery?
The Celebrate Recovery 8 principles are based on the Beatitudes listed in Matthew 5.
1. Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that
my life is unmanageable.
2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
4. Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
5. Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my
character defects.
6. Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm
I’ve done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others.
7. Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and
His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
8. Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my
words.
Conclusion
We have covered quite a bit of valuable information in this article! You should now understand:
It would mean the world to me if you would share this article on social media. I put a lot of work into writing
this article, so please help me get the wonderful word out about how useful Celebrate Recovery is and share
this with other people to help them on their road to recovery!
If you’d like to share your story or answers to the questions in this post, just leave a comment below or
contact me.
I look forward to hearing about your experience with Celebrate Recovery!