Big Book on Step Seven
 

Humbly asked God to remove 59:14
Here the program of action is laid out for us to examine. If we have taken the first two steps toward recovery, we can now decide whether we want to continue. To go on as we have been, or to accept a way of life based on the conscious awareness of the existence of God, what is our choice to be?

Awakening spiritually does not stop us from being human. At times we willfully disregard the will of our Higher Power. We try to apply these principles in every area of our lives, but being human we sometimes fall short. The benefits of trying to lead a spiritually based life are so great that we return to the path as soon as we recognize the errors of our ways. As we progress spiritually, the time we spend in the darkness of self-will lessons and the time we spend in the Sunlight of the Spirit lengthens.

Seventh Step prayer 76:6-10
The Seventh Step prayer is an expression of humility. We are acknowledging our need to have God’s help in overcoming our defects of character. We have analyzed our character and admitted to God, ourselves and another person, what it is in us that blocks us off from God. By doing this, we become ready to have God remover our defects of character.

This is not a self-help program. If we were able to live up to our ideals, we would have done so. We are powerless to bring about the total rearrangement of our ideas, emotions, and attitudes that is necessary if we are to live this new way of life. We adopt, as a new guiding principle for our lives, the search to find and do God’s will. We place ourselves in the position to receive God’s help by making a conscious decision to abandon our old idea that the application of self-will would produce happiness and satisfaction.

By allowing God to make use of all aspects of our characters, our strengths and our weaknesses, we more completely abandon self-seeking and self-centeredness.

We allow God to determine which aspects of our character are most useful. What we perceive as a weakness may make us more approachable to others. What we perceive as a strength may diminish our usefulness. We let God decide.

If we were able to do God’s will we would. By practicing the principles of this program we learn how to access this Power greater than ourselves. One of the techniques we use is to ask for help in prayer.

We do not seek God’s help to accommodate our self-seeking objectives. The new focus of our lives is to find and do God’s will for us. Our seeking will result in our finding God’s will for us. God’s power is available to us for the asking. With it we will be able to overcome the temptation to act in self-seeking ways.

The steps are not magic tricks that fix us at first try, but rather techniques for living life successfully.

Freedom 87:7
Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it. This old adage rings true. We know the baleful results of achieving our selfish ends. We decided in the third step to quit playing God and instead turned our will and our lives over to the care of God. When used properly, prayer turns us into a mighty tool to be wielded by God.

:c041: :Thinkingo

Thanks for your help Nandm!:ghug3 I've just done step seven and actually I re-do it every morning when I wake up. Each day is its own struggle and I must deal with my shortcomings on a daily basis. So every morning, after thanking Him for waking up healthy, I ask HIm to help me get thru the day as The Best Person I can be.

I find that helps me a lot, as each day is a struggle, not just to stay sober, but to stay sane and reasonably happy with what I have and who I am.

Thanks!:scoregood

Quick bump and thanks to the (absent?) friend who first posted this thread.

I find this hard to discuss seriously with some friends in AA but it captures my thoughts pretty well...the wording of Step 7 is quite specific for me...we offer ALL of ourselves...the good and the bad. We pray for the removal of defects that stand in the way of our usefulness. We don't pray for or expect the removal of ALL defects BECAUSE they stand in the way...we just ask for those barriers which get in the way to be removed. Pretty clear for me and a great basis for a working sense of humility.

As I understand it we ain't picking and choosing what needs fixing...and we ain't expecting to become perfect. We are just asking to become more useful...

I was discussing this with a friend (sponsee) recently. He has just taken service as a greeter at one of our meetings. At the end of the night he had a pang of conscience that he'd been a bit 'much' or a bit cocky in the way he welcomed and spoke to folks as they arrived. I didn't see that, just a young guy with the gift of the gab that put a smile on a few faces.

As we discussed...maybe God still has use for some of our defects...he puts us where he thinks we need to be and when it's time to let go of something, he'll let us know. Meanwhile he uses us warts and all :)

Good stuff

P

well put Paul
I used to think I had to get good to get God,but if that be the case,I could never get God because i could never get good enough.
So He took me warts,scars,ugliness and all
and for that I am grateful