Prayer

[tomvlll]

Originally Posted by vegibean

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

• How does this step work for you?
• If you're not a very religious person, how do you make it work?
• What does it mean to you?
• How do you practice this step?
• When we do step 11, what happens?

Hope you will all join in on Wednesday, 8PM Eastern time in the Chat Room.

1) I go by the book. " ..praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out". I don't pray for world peace or for the still suffering alcoholic or for my son to get a job or anything other than exactly what the step says.


2) I view prayer as my way to communicate with my higher power. I work it it in with my tenth step. " Ok where did I eff up today ...why? ...was I falling back on my old character defects ? ....let's think about the next day? What might happen....how should I handle it '"God's way' ..."

[CarolD]

I think of prayer as a conversation with God
so I pray in various ways.

Sometimes it's a petition ...sometimes for protection
sometimes in gratitude or to honor

...For me...prayer is vital and there is no one way.

[bballdad]

I know one thing,when we pray,something happens somewhere to someone someday somehow

[navysteve]

When I took the third step I stopped always being a victim. I owned many of my problems.

The eleventh step gives me the chance to keep growing. Step three opened the door, 4-9 cleaned up my past. Step 10 keeps me right for today ( when I use it) Step 11 can bring me closer to God. I prefer to contemplate. I take a portion of the prayer of St Francis.

Who do I serve thee????? ( A recurring theme in the Big Book)

I often take that prayer and turn it into questions at the end of the day. I find prayer and meditation are very effective if I follow them up with some inventory.

[IO Storm]

I find prayer and meditation are very effective if I follow them up with some inventory.

This works for me, too..Naysteve.

[Tazman53]

I have found myself in prayer & meditation without even making a conscious decision to do so, the neat thing is the longer I stay sober and the more I work my program, the more natural prayer & meditation becomes. I find myself applying prayer & meditation in all areas of my life today.

[AW2486]

In the years I've been sober.. I have never did any structured meditation. A lot of talking to God but not much listening. I heard something neat on an old speaker tape yesterday. I apologize if this has been posted here before, The guy said somebody suggested to him.. Breathe In (God In) - Breathe Out (Fear Out) .. I tried it today while driving and it was calming.