Prayers are a significant part of working a 12-step program. By tapping into a Higher Power and spirituality, AA prayers help those in recovery find the strength they need to work certain steps. While the Serenity Prayer is the most popular of all, there’s an important prayer linked to every step. Let’s take a look at some of these prayers and how they can help you in your recovery journey.
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First Step Prayer
As you might know, the first step is all about accepting powerlessness over one’s addiction. While this prayer is for God, remember that you can change it for whatever Higher Power you believe in, or use it as a meditation mantra instead.
Dear Lord,
I admit that I am powerless over my addiction.
I admit that my life is unmanageable when I try to control it.
Help me this day to understand
The true meaning of powerlessness.
Remove from me all denial of my addiction.
Third Step Prayer
By the third step, recovering alcoholics have made the decision to turn their will and their lives to the care of God or this Higher Power. It is here where they truly accept their powerlessness against their disease and hope for salvation.
God, I offer myself to thee — to build with me and to do with me as thou will.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will.
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of thy power, thy love, and thy way of life.
May I do Thy will always!
Seventh Step Prayer
As you reach this step, it can be challenging to find the right words to ask God to remove your shortcomings. This AA prayer is meant to help you find the right words and the pathway to leave your shortcomings behind.
My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad.
I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows.
Grant me strength as I go out from here to do your bidding. v
Eleventh Step Prayer
Also known as the St. Francis Prayer, from the early 1900s. The eleventh step is about continuing the journey to betterment. Here, you continue to find strength from prayers and meditation and ask God to give you the power to carry that out.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me show love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Oh divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
The Serenity Prayer
At last, the most important AA prayer of all — the serenity prayer. Not only the most commonly used, but it’s the one that usually opens and closes most 12-step meetings. The original prayer is from the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, but the short form is used in AA meetings and probably throughout recovery.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
Finding Help for Alcohol Addiction Near Me
If you or someone you love is struggling with alcohol addiction, seek help immediately. Don’t let the power of addiction take your life away. At Lighthouse Recovery Institute, our comprehensive alcohol addiction treatment programs can help you find the pathway to long-term recovery. Sobriety could be one phone call away.
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