I have had the opportunity to participate in a group gathering that has helped me in my current battle to be free from all addictions. In my ongoing identification and overcoming process of the addiction tendencies that have held me down, the following adapted 12 steps have been of great value. These were introduced to me as part of the Restored Recovery Ministry offered by Reslife Church of Grandville Michigan (meetings every Monday night at 6:30 PM – open to everyone).
Step 1: We admit that we will remain powerless and our lives unmanageable as long as we don’t walk in our God-given authority.
Step 2: We came to believe that the Power of Jesus Christ can restore us to sanity.
Step 3: We made the decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
Step 4: We have a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6: We are entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.
Step 7: We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8: We made a list of all the persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Step 9: We make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, we promptly admit it.
Step 11: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying for only knowledge of His will for us and His power to carry it out.
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of God’s voice and these steps, we will try to carry this message to others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.
These steps are becoming very helpful in my life. I hope they are helpful to you as well.