Praying the 12 Steps of Recovery for Those in Addiction: Steps Four Through Six

As we continue praying through the 12 Steps of Recovery, please bear in mind, this is just as much about your recovery as those struggling with addiction. You have been engaged in battle, you have been wounded, and maybe, you have tried to treat those wounds in a way not consistent with a healthy life of your own. Please allow God to work in you as well as through you. For His glory alone.

STEP 4) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 

The Principle of COURAGE

"Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!" Lamentations 3:40

Lord, I ask You to give them the desire to bring Your light into their world. I ask You to lead them on a comprehensive discovery of who they have been and who they can be in You. Expose their dark places, flush out their ruined lives with truth, reopen festering wounds to be washed clean, and give them the courage to bring these things before You daily. Strengthen them for this exploration, Lord. Much of what has brought them to this place is fear; fill them with Your courage, O Lord. Show them that You are a Rock, that they can lean on You in order to receive newness of life. Prepare the people, places and things around them that, as they uncover parts of themselves -- the unhealthy things in their lives -- they would be replaced by conditions leading them to repentance, to You and to the next step on their journey to recovery. Amen

STEP 5) Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

The Principle of INTEGRITY

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” James 5:16

Heavenly Father, please help them to desire integrity, and to actively seek it in all of their interactions. Please develop in them a desire for authenticity, a desire for transparency that even they are unable to explain. Help them to say what they mean, and mean what they say. Prepare their hearts to submit to accountability. Send someone they will be willing to trust. Send someone who will maintain boundaries. Pull them from the point of recognizing their wrongs to confessing them, speaking them aloud and owning them as past transgressions while seeking to move forward. Keep them from remaining fixated on themselves, and keep them from lingering in a place of guilt and shame any longer than they need in preparation for moving to a better place. Keep their hearts soft and humble; incline Your ear to their prayers and ours. Amen

STEP 6) We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 

The Principle of WILLINGNESS

"So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor." 1 Peter 5:6

Lord, break them. Bring them to bow before You, humbly, gratefully, willing to accept Your hand on their every thought, their every desire, their every word, their every act. May they be wholly given over to You that Your Spirit might transform them inside and out. May the bonds of addiction be broken as they claim for themselves Your perfect work at the cross. Free them from the slavery of sin. Strip them of their sense of self. But You, O God, are a gracious God! You will not leave them in that place. Fill them with Your character. Show them who they are in You. Give them a glimpse of what could be that they might gladly release the worthless things they cling to, and shed the garments of sloth and fear. Exchange their ashes for beauty, and keep their voices forever praising You. Amen

Steps Seven through Nine tomorrow.