12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #7
Focus on the Recovery Process
The first word in this step speaks to the attitude the addict must have in approaching God. Humility is the key. For so long, we believed that we could manage our own lives. We did not need God’s help with our addiction. Whether it was through ignorance or arrogance, we thumbed our noses at God, and in doing so, declared to Him that we knew better that He did how to be God. Now that we have learned that self dependence does not keep us addiction free, we humbly turn to Him and ask God to remove our shortcoming.
Asking is an action step. Here is something that we must do. There are things about recovery that only God can do such as give us the power to restore us to sanity. However, God know that there are steps we must take on our own behalf through which we show that we understand our need for him. In the seventh step, asking is a concrete demonstration of our need for God’s help.
What do we ask? That He remove our shortcomings. When making this type of request, it is best to be specific. In the 4th step, we identified our defects of character. In the 5th step we confessed to God and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Through the 6th step we became ready to have them removed. In this step, we ask that the specific shortcomings we’ve identified be removed. “Lord, please remove my pride, remove my bitterness and resentment, remove my sense of guilt over having hurt you, others (name them), and myself. Lord, to the best of my understanding today, I am ready to have you remove these sinful, hurtful shortcomings, and I am asking you now to do so. I believe, by the power of Jesus blood, shed on the cross for my sins, that you will do as I have requested, in Jesus name. Amen” A prayer such as this, God will never ignore, and will always act upon. He’s just been waiting for you to ask!