The twelve steps of recovery
I must be having a moment of blog insecurity. I have several blog posts all in draft form and don't feel like posting any of them. I did however skip off from work early one day last week to go to an Addiction Workshop that my friend Penny, from Overcomers Outreach was running over in Upper Chapter House. I'm silly that I didn't tell you all to be there, because it was really good and more people need to be aware of addictions and addiction recovery.
For starters, one of the things people often ask me is what are the twelve steps. They are readily available on the internet, but I thought I'd post here the form we use at Overcomers Outreach, with the bible verses that have been added. I have just pinched this from here, because I know that if you're like me you're slightly more likely to read something, at least right now, if you don't need to follow a link. It's a very useful tool that there is great benefit in working through, with or without an addiction. For example, I sat down recently and put myself through the "resentment inventory", which is something that you do at step 4 - it was a very helpful process (and there is also a "fear inventory" and others). Overcomers Outreach covers all addictions as well as self-destructive behaviours (but it is recommended that people also go their specific 12-step program eg AA or NA etc). If you're anything like me you might be surprised by the 12 steps, that they are so much the "gospel in a drunks language", as they call it. The weird thing is that they now use this in AA without God in the picture. Step 3 actually usually has "as we understand him to be" added on Step 3, so people make up their own "higher power".
Step 1We admitted we were powerless over our addictions – our lives had become unmanageable.
Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.
Step 2We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Mark 10:26-27 ... who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is
impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Step 3
We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Step 4We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Lamentations 3:40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.
Step 5We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness
Step 6
We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Step 7
We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Step 8
We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Matthew 7:3-5 ”Why do you look at the spec of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ... first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Step 9
We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Matthew 5:23-24 Therefore, if ... your brother has something against you ... go and be reconciled to your brother …
Step 10
We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
Romans 13:8-9 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments ... are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Step 11We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.
Philippians 1:9-10 … and this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.
Step 12Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Galations 6:9-10 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.