The First Step prayer according to the Alcoholics Anonymous website is: “I admit I am powerless. 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 of my denial.”
This is the first recommended prayer regarding the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you are curious about the Twelve Steps of AA, this personal blog from me (as a proud Purpose Healing Center alumni) can help you understand what each step entails and how you can benefit from them.
Understanding the First Step in AA
The Alcoholics Anonymous faith-based program has many different prayers that coincide with different steps in the 12-step program. The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.”
My experience with the 1st step and the first step prayer is mostly positive, as I have ample evidence that I am powerless over all mind-altering substances and my life is increasingly unmanageable when I drink and use drugs.
The research and proof I needed to confirm these things was done while I was in active addiction. Addiction recovery starts with the first step, and the first step prayer is asking for a Higher Power to confirm these things for us.
This step is considered to be the only one that has to be done perfectly. Without admitting powerlessness, it is impossible to take the rest of the steps thoroughly.
What is a Power Greater than Myself
There is no limit to what this Power Greater than yourself needs to be. Some people choose to use nature or the universe. Some people are Christians and have faith in the Abrahamic God. Some choose to create their own concept, basing their beliefs on whatever concept they have created in their mind.
The only part that matters is being able to communicate and trust that this power has the best intentions when interacting with you.
I have my own conception of God. Something that is beyond human comprehension and cannot be put into a box. Something beyond anything humans can imagine.
Believing in this power, this energy, was sufficient for me to complete the steps, and I now feel this power manifesting in all areas of my life. Prayer serves to connect me to this power, and meditation brings me closer to conscious contact with it.
The freedom to choose your own higher power was an important aspect of the program to the founders because they wanted to reach more people. They didn’t want to turn anyone off of the program by separating people the way religious overtones sometimes can.
Both religious people and people who are not religious attend AA and approach it in their own ways, with their goal being to practice principles that will bring about a spiritual awakening sufficient to heal the alcohol problem.
The Most Commonly Recited Prayer in AA: The Serenity Prayer
The serenity prayer stirs up emotion in most people because it is heard at almost every meeting that has ever taken place. It is usually recited by the group in unison which creates a spiritual atmosphere in the meeting.
The serenity prayer serves to convey the mindset most recovering addicts and alcoholics strive to incorporate as members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The prayer, as written in the big book, is: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Reciting this prayer is typically the last thing done in an AA meeting before closing, reminding the community about the importance of accepting hardships and the concept of surrender.
Many other prayers sometimes take the place of the serenity prayer in closing the meeting. However, the serenity prayer is the most commonly used one in my experience.
Another Commonly Recited Prayer in AA Meetings is the 3rd Step Prayer
After coming to believe in a power greater than ourselves in Step 2, Step 3 asks us to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand him.
Out of the Twelve Step prayers, the official Steps 2 and 3 are: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity & Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
The 3rd step prayer is important, as it represents an important decision in the recovery journey. Completely giving your will to a higher power is nothing to scoff at.
The 3rd step prayer is: “God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and do with me as Thou wilt. 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!”
Relinquishing control to a higher power through meditation and prayer has brought me peace and comfort. Staying out of the results and focusing on the journey is a way for me to find serenity.
Having faith and losing self-will has been a solution to my addiction. Living in God’s will takes positive action. I cannot pray and then sit around hoping that God will take care of everything for me. It doesn’t work that way.
Purpose Healing Center has helped me to see the benefits of working the steps, and now that I have completed treatment, I continue to work with my sponsor and improve upon my life.
Steps 4, 5, 6, and 7: Taking a Personal Moral Inventory and Ridding Ourselves of Character Defects
The theory of AA about alcohol use is that it is an issue with being extremely self-centered. Step 4 asks us to make a moral inventory to find our character defects. Daily reflection is required to see how we are fearful, self-seeking, and dishonest so that we can correct these behaviors.
After taking a fearless moral inventory, sharing it with another human being and with our higher power is the next step, Step 5.
Steps 6 and 7 are about asking our higher power to take away these character defects.
The 7th step prayer is another AA prayer that is recited frequently in AA meetings. It reads as follows: “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. Amen.”
This prayer is an important milestone when working the 12 steps.
Working the Steps in Treatment
Purpose Healing Center introduced me to the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I began working on them while completing my treatment there.
I am grateful for the program of recovery, as they helped me to build my sobriety while I was with them.
AA prayers mean a lot to me, as AA and Purpose Healing Centers gave me my life back. I can feel the weight of the words as I recite these prayers, and I can’t express enough how much they have changed my life.
If you are struggling, please follow the path I took and call Purpose Healing Centers or go to a meeting near you. Life is so much better on the other side, and recovery is possible. Don’t wait another day, call today.
480-579-3319