Having completed Steps One through Five, there are some fundamental recovery questions in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous that must be answered before we can move on.1) Have we omitted anything?
2) Is our work solid so far?
3) Are the stones properly in place?
4) Have we skipped on the cement put into the foundation?
5) Have we tried to make motor without sand?
If we can answer these questions in the affirmative, then we have completed the first five steps in such a way that we have acquired the humility necessary to be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
The Big Book of AA states "if we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at Step Six. We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can God now take them all, every one? If we can answer in the affirmative we have then completed Step Six.
The Seventh Step of Alcoholics Anonymous is "humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings." In the Step Book it states "this lack of anchorage to any permanent values, this blindness to the true purpose of our lives produced another bad result, for just as long as we convinced ourselves that we could live by our own individual strength and intelligence, for just that long was a working faith in a higher power impossible. This was true even though we believed God existed. As long as we placed self reliance first, a genuine reliance upon a higher power was impossible. THE BASIC INGREDIENT of all humility, a desire to seek and do God's will, was missing."
I have learned through experience that belief in God is not enough, that we must trust in God in every area of our lives, even as our every day life unfolds. The purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to bring us from a thought process propelled by our human desires to a thought process propelled by the will of God. In the will of God our defects that exist in our human nature cannot possibly be manifested in our behavior. And it is only through true humility, a desire to seek and do God's will, that that can occur. We can free ourselves from the bondage of self, we can trust in God in all things and, if so, we are protected from the disease of Alcoholism.
Written by Armand
Humility, for me, is the courage to first find out what it was/is about me that prevented my spirit from being awake and alive. In order to have a meaningful life, I had to come face-to-face with myself and then reveal myself to another human being. Without knowing and revealing, I was going nowhere. From that point forward(self-confrontation and revelation), I had to know with certainty that I could become the person I was born to be. Only by incorporating The Steps into my life was I able to find the genuine desire to search for and locate that gift - the ultimate gift through The Power Within me. When we hear that "time takes time," that"s because giving our my human nature (our thinking and will) is a learned and earned process. But the gift is both in this moment and forever.
ReplyDeleteMichael love the knowing and revealing. steps 6 and 7 go a long way in letting go of our human nature and living in the will of God...Thank you...Armand
DeleteArmand,
ReplyDeleteThe Biblical basis and foundation for the 12 Steps of AA is clearly found in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 and is God's divine promise well worth repeating: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place." And as St. Peter further tells us in Acts 3:19 "that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."
Consider God's promise gleaned from above, "Then I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." The clear declaration is that God himself will do for us what we could not, and cannot do for ourselves... We need merely offer our myriad malignancy's for removal by the Divine Surgeon's hand and as we climb upon the table it will be done according to His will and perfect timing. This is the essence of Steps 6 and 7.
I need only confess my specific sins, faults and failures and He promises to release me from the prison of sinful acts and actions that had heretofore captured every aspect of my former existence. Isaiah 43:18-19 becomes my new reality "Do not remember the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it will spring forth; shall you not know it?" Yes, by His Spirit who now resides inside me I do. He has carried me a long way on this journey through life. There is yet a long way to go, but oh what a journey it is...
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic
a Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic some of my favotite scripture...Thank you...Armand
DeleteFor me steps 6 and 7 spell the change between old behaviors and new ones. They are sometimes called the forgotten steps as they take up such a small space in the Big Book. In the section ‘there is a solution’ We are told to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We all have this kit. The question is will I pick it up. Not doing steps 6 and 7 after 5 spells disaster as I am a dry drunk still holding onto my defects ir shortcomibgs. I cant will them away. As with the alcohol God has to remove them. Its a work in prigress because every time I take my will back, the defects come tumbling in and there I am in pain again. Far better to work on them each day by asking God what his will is for me. Thy will be done nit mine.
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