All Sorts Of Absurd Actions And Ideas…Step 11

All Sorts Of Absurd Actions And Ideas…Step 11 by Jason Randolph for Gospel News Network

11. 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. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous

When we finally make progress in getting our life back on track we find that we haven’t done anything except get out of God’s way so that He could restore our lives. We had to do a little clean up, you know, like adult stuff, and stop acting like a spoiled child. Now comes the time when we begin to add more of the Holy Bible and less of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. We are not done with the the book AA but we are going to begin shifting our focus towards the Holy Bible and the AA book will become secondary to our Spiritual growth. So long as we follow the directions we are given in AA, which leads to the Bible, then we begin to follow the directions we find among the pages of Jesus Christ, Peter, Paul and all the rest.

Prayer is one of the most important, if not the most important tool that Jesus Christ teaches us about using. The Disciples and Apostles talk about prayer but it is Jesus that drives home the importance and the “how-to” pray. The Apostle Paul talks a lot about how prayer impacts our lives and transforms our minds which, in turn, transforms our actions. This is how we maintain our life in our Christ Identity. We are constantly seeking, asking and knocking upon the door of Christ’s Mind. Where else would a person expect all the Wisdom of earth, life and all else?

Since we have lived a life run on free will and are now going to live by God’s will we might want to know, and begin to understand, what exactly that means. We used 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11 to start this venture as the Apostle Paul describes who people are and who people are not. There are a great many references throughout the Gospels that will help, we just happened to use this one for a specific reason, which is about to be revealed.

Later in 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul states the following…

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:14-19 KJB

We believe this influenced Step 11 and some of the writings surrounding Step 11 in the “big book”.

If you need to know how to end your day, start your day or how to conduct yourself during your day, there are suggestions all on page 85-87 that will help tremendously. Of course, none of this will help if one hasn’t already done a thorough, selfless and honest job of the first 10 steps. They go in order for a reason and the emphasis on being thorough, selfless and honest is there for a reason as well. We pray that your prayer life increases and the adventures, blessings and promises that Jesus Christ has written in the book of your life begin to unfold right before your eyes.