STEP 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
How It Works
Step 11 suggests prayer and
meditation. We shouldn't be shy in this matter of
prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It
works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it.
-A.A. Big Book p.85-86
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Those of us who
have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do
without it than we would refuse air, food or sunshine.
And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light or
food the body suffers. And when we turn away from
meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds,
our emotions and our intuitions of vitally needed
support. As the body can fail its purpose for lack of
nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of
God's reality, the nourishment of His strength, and the
atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts
of A.A. life confirm this ageless truth.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve
Traditions, p. 97-98
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When we first come to the Program,
we usually express a lot of things which seem to be
important wants and needs. As we grow spiritually and
find out about a Power greater than ourselves, we begin
to realize that as long as our spiritual needs are truly
met, our living problems are reduced to a point of
comfort. When we forget where our real strength lies, we
quickly become subject to the same patterns of thinking
and action that got us to the Program in the first
place. We eventually redefine our beliefs and
understanding to the point where we see that our
greatest need is for knowledge of God's will for us and
the strength to carry that out. We are able to set aside
some of our personal preference, if necessary, to do
this because we learn that God's will consists of the
very things we care most about. God's will for us
becomes our own true will for ourselves. This happens in
an intuitive manner which cannot be adequately explained
in words.
We become willing to let other
people be what they are without having to pass judgment
on them. The urgency to take care of things isn't there
anymore. We couldn't comprehend acceptance in the
beginning-now we can.
- Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text,
Chapter 4/Step 11
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Step 11 provides daily spiritual
maintenance. As recovering persons, we may use our
support groups and recovery literature as springboards
toward spiritual and emotional growth. We will probably
reach a level, though, at which we hunger for an even
deeper contact and communication with God...
If we have had little or no
experience with prayer, we should probably begin in a
simple fashion. That means putting aside perfectionist
concerns about praying "the right way." We should pray
simply and forthrightly to God as a loving Father, not
worrying about what we should and should not say.
Over time, as we become
comfortable with God, we will talk with Him as with a
trusted friend. He will be the Person with whom we can
conduct our daily inventories of grief and confession
issues. And we will begin to sense His answers to our
prayers...
- Serenity, A Companion for Twelve
Step Recovery, p. 72, 73
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Moving through the steps people
report being increasingly in contact with someone - a
"Person" rather than a philosophical Higher Power. When
this change takes place, we often see miracles happening
in their lives. After much fear of losing control, they
discover insight, wisdom, power, and courage that they
didn't have at all two weeks before. At that point many
say, "I surrender, I give up." They begin to communicate
with God concerning what is happening to them. And
that's when they are ready to receive the help of Step
Eleven.
Although these changes happen for
many people, they do not happen for all. Many work the
steps and stay sane in Twelve-Step programs yet somehow
miss the whole thing about prayer and meditation. Most
of the people who work good programs, however, are
connected to God and do use prayer and meditation in
some form. They use them as practical ways of learning
who God is and what his will for them may be, as well as
for learning useful truths about who they are and what
they're to do in order to find happiness, guidance,
peace and continued growth. But mostly they pray because
they feel gratitude, love and a sense of awe that the
One with whom they are in contact is using his power to
heal them.
- A Hunger for Healing, by Keith
Miller, p. 180
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