STEP ELEVEN

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Prayer and Meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God. To some new comers and one-time agnostics it is still unconvincing who are still clinging to the AA group as their higher power. Those who experiment with this and got unexpected results felt different and were sold on prayer and meditation. The scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough. Thus we pray for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out.

There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Several hundred years ago a saint had expressed what a prayer should be:

1. Lord make me a channel of thy peace-that where there is hatred, I may bring love.
2. Where there is wrong-I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.
3. That where there is discord-I may bring harmony.
4. That where there is error-I may bring truth.
5. That where there is doubt-I may bring faith.
6. That where there is despair-I may bring hope.
7. That where there are shadows-I may bring light.
8. That where there is sadness-I may bring joy.
9. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted.
10. To understand than to be understood.
11. To love, than to be loved.
12. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds the higher self.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying of self that one awakens to eternal life.

11th Step Morning Prayer

God, please direct my thinking so I may be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Please show me inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision, so I may be of maximum service to you, and other people. Please show me what I need today and remove me from self-will.

As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done." We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.

11th Step Evening Prayer

God, I have failed in some areas of my life today, I was not able to be as effective as I could have been for you. Please, help me live your will better tomorrow. I ask you now to show me how to correct the errors I have made. Guide me and direct me. Please, show me how to make my relationships right and grant me the humility and strength to do your will.