{"id":16154,"date":"2020-10-16T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=16154"},"modified":"2020-10-25T20:43:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T00:43:18","slug":"the-step-7-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-step-7-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Step 7 Prayer in AA: All About Humility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What happens during Step 7 of AA? What is the AA Step 7 prayer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Step 7 prayer is used to appeal to the higher power for assistance with removing character flaws. You want to be able to overcome these and that is what Step 7 of AA is about, but it is not the only step with a prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about the Step 7 prayer and the praying and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/eckhart-tolle-meditation-mindfulness\/\">meditation<\/a> counterpart in Step 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The AA Step 7 Prayer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Step 7 of AA is about humility. You are not, and have never been, able to remove your shortcomings by yourself, no matter how high your willpower of determination. You need your higher power to do this for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-big-book\/\">The Big Book<\/a> has this AA Step 7 prayer for your higher power: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 11<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Step 11, you discover the plan that your higher power has for you, and you gain the will to carry it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For spiritual people, this step often involves prayer and meditation. For secular people, this involves stopping and reflecting on your thoughts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a simple way of implementing Step 11:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>At the end of the day, review your day constructively. Did you have any shortcomings, like being resentful, afraid, or selfish? Do you need to make amends to anyone? Were you kind towards all? What could you have done better?<\/li><li>Don\u2019t drift into worry or morbid reflection\u2014this will diminish your usefulness to others. Ask for forgiveness and ask what corrective measures need be taken.<\/li><li>The next day, on waking, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plan-your-day\/\">plan your day<\/a>. Don\u2019t feel any self-pity and don\u2019t have any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/human-motives\/\">selfish motives<\/a>. Pray that you\u2019ll be shown all day what your next step is to be, that you\u2019ll be given whatever you need to take care of such problems.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As you complete these steps, you will feel renewed. Fear and insecurity will leave; ability and peace will replace them. \u201cGod is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What happens during Step 7 of AA? What is the AA Step 7 prayer? The Step 7 prayer is used to appeal to the higher power for assistance with removing character flaws. You want to be able to overcome these and that is what Step 7 of AA is about, but it is not the only step with a prayer. Read more about the Step 7 prayer and the praying and meditation counterpart in Step 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,43,6],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-16154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-self-improvement","category-spiritual","tag-alcoholics-anonymous-the-big-book","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Step 7 Prayer in AA: All About Humility - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Progress in AA depends on humility. You can&#039;t do everything yourself. The Step 7 prayer appeals to a higher power to fix flaws. See it here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-step-7-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Step 7 Prayer in AA: All About Humility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Progress in AA depends on humility. You can&#039;t do everything yourself. The Step 7 prayer appeals to a higher power to fix flaws. 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