My Step One experience brought me to the bedrock belief that I am powerless over lust, that my life had become unmanageable. That powerlessness resulted in a experiential understanding that I had no control anymore over lust. Lust controlled me, and there was nothing I could do in my effort to change that. Lust was always more powerful than me, and I had no hope in battling it.

I needed a power more powerful than lust to take care of my lust for me (Step Two). Fortunately, there is the SA program of the 12 Steps that showed me that if I came to trust a Power greater than myself (and greater than lust), I would be given a gift of sobriety every time I turned my lust over to that Power. I could be restored to sanity. I did not need to surrender to lust anymore. I could be rid of it.

Since I didn’t have another realistic alternative to finding a Higher Power (because I am powerless), working Step Three was how I practiced trusting God. I would simply give up trying to maintain control over lust and over myself, and instead let God have that lust and my will and life. And when I have given my will and life over to God, then turning any temptations over to Him is really quite natural. As my sponsor said, Step Three is a decision to work the rest of the Steps. And that was a journey that continues to bring me into right relationship with God and others. After seven years of sobriety, do I now have control or some power over lust? No. But God still does; so, I don’t have to. That’s what keeps me sober.