12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #10
Focus on the Recovery Process
12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #10
Step 10 is the first of the so-called maintenance steps. We first took a searching and fearless inventory when we worked on our 4th step. I used the words “worked on” intentionally because Step 10 informs us that we are a work-in-process and, as such, we will continue to ask God to search us and show us our hearts daily (Ps. 139-23-24). In steps 8 and 9, we initiated an amends process guided by the wisdom of Scripture and those who have gone before us on the journey of recovery.
Many of those who work a strong recovery program make it a part of their evening devotional routine to take a few minutes to review their day. They may ask that the Holy Spirit bring to their memory any way that day in which they may have hurt God, another person, or themselves. Others have become so sensitized to the still small voice of the Spirit that they can sense immediately that they have transgressed the boundaries of another or spoken with a self-centered motive or acted in some hurtful way. They can immediately take care of the offense by it to themselves, to God and to the other and by asking forgiveness.
Keeping a clear conscience becomes an important part of the daily routine of a person in recovery. As important as attending Journey to Wholeness recovery meetings is in a person’s life, it is equally as important to maintain the daily discipline of working steps such as taking a continual personal inventory. I begin the day with reading and working on recovery material from the Journey to Wholeness Participant Guides, my recovery Bibles, and other spiritual reading. My day begins by asking God to be remind me to keep him first in my life at every moment of the day. I’ve learned and am learning more each day that God is faithful to keep me as I continue to take a personal inventory.
David Sedlacek