https://12stepnationalmeetings.com/media/Step-11-Alcoholics-Anonymous.mp4
Hey, how you doing? Again? Now, we are in Step 11. We’re coming up to the apex of the mountain. We are almost through we’re moving the head into the maintenance steps maintenance step number 10 maintenance step number 11 and maintenance step number 12 by this time. We have a good understanding of who we are and some of the things that we’ve done and you should be feeling pretty good about now. You should be hey congratulating yourself you’re doing well, and I hope I’m doing well. I hope you have fun.
Understanding Step 11 says sought to prayer talking about pray again and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out sought through prayer and meditation simply put somebody said prayers. I was talking to God and meditation is US listening to God. I mean, there are so many different ways to talk about prayer and meditation that I’m hesitant to even try to go.
You know because no matter what I say, I’m going to be right for somebody and wrong for somebody else. Each person has to find their own spiritual disciplines. You see there are some things that we that God will not do without us as I said and we can’t do anything without God, I believe but prayer and meditation places Us in the position to be used by God. They are called means of Grace. They are called tools by some people and I always say you
You have all the tools in the world, but if you don’t pick it up, so be it you just have tools to fix a car. You haven’t picked it up for prayer and meditation or tools that have been used throughout the centuries and the eons way before AAA thought about being a and they have been sufficient for many people to overcome life dominating problems. And so AA and Na and other 12-step groups have recognized the power of seeking through prayer and meditation a conscious contact with God and I believe
That prayer should be for me at least simplistic. Again. Prayer doesn’t have to be a lot of words. It doesn’t have to be Elizabeth in English. It doesn’t have to be the way you think it should be prayer to me can be very simplistic. But I believe that I have a higher power that he is me and I can pray and talk to my higher power as my friend. So I seek my higher power through prayer. Just talking to my higher file. Thanking my higher power rejoicing and laughing with
If my higher power dancing with my higher power cracking jokes with my higher power. I mean, I don’t think anything is off-limits. I can be angry at time with my higher power. I don’t think it’s off-limits because I have a loving higher power. So prayer and meditation. I do that to seek a conscious contact that I have contact, but I’m all not always conscious because I’m so selfish. So I seek through prayer and meditation and meditation as I said Is Us.
Listening to God trying to receive from God as a matter of fact, I think most of prayer is really trying to align myself with God’s purposes. I believe God has a purpose for the whole universe and if I can just align myself with his purpose and go the way he’s going everything’s going to be. Alright now for those of y’all who don’t like he go the where she’s going everything is gonna be. All right. I believe that prayer Our lines me with the purposes of the universe and the purpose for my life. So I’m not trying so much to been gods.
Humble or knock down the other the resistance of God in heaven God is Not resisting. My happiness. God is Not resisting. My joy. God is Not resisting those things that are helpful to me. It’s me that’s causing the problem. So when I pray I start aligning myself to the purposes of God and I believe God’s purposes are good and healthy and loving and joyful. And another way. I line myself is through meditation, then they are.
The ways of meditation, I believe that in some Eastern meditation. The objective is to empty yourself maybe of yourself and all the noise pollution that’s inside our head. So some people as you know, may look at a candle or something. They mean I know new Nee Nee they meditate on one object and what they’re trying to do is just clear themselves of all the Clutter to the best of my understanding just clear themselves of all the Clutter so they’re trying to empty themselves. Then there’s the other kind of Christian.
Meditation most of the time is not to try to clear yourself and to become nothing but to actually fill yourself with maybe what you believe is the word of God. So some people would meditate on that word the word meditation in the Bible means to mother or to say to yourself or to just chew over it again, like a cow chewing the cud. So some people meditate the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want the Lord is my shepherd. I shall now one the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want the Lord is all day long they made
Meditate on that one line all day long taking away their fears and insecurities of economic insecurities and taking away the fears that their needs are not going to be met take it away the fear that they live in a hostile world with a God that doesn’t really have a shepherding heart. So what they’re doing is just reminding themselves on a continual basis. The Lord is my shepherd. Of course in our program many of us meditate on the Serenity Prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
Change the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. So many people meditate on that all day long helping with the 10 step temp step. What is the wisdom to know the difference? When should I promptly a promptly admit that I’m wrong? And when am I right because I’m not always wrong. Somebody said a broken clock is right twice a day. I must be right some time. So I’m not always wrong. I’m not a doormat running around promptly admitting. I’m wrong all the time. So as I meditate on the Serenity Prayer
I’m asking for the wisdom to know the difference to know when I’m wrong and to know when all the person might be wrong or the situation might be in just so I can meditate on the Serenity Prayer. I can meditate on the Prayer of Saint Francis of assisi’s. There are so many things you can meditate that. I don’t know about in other religious Traditions that people can meditate on that know far more than I know but I know that prayer and meditation throughout the ages have allowed people to come into conscious contact.
With God you see we live in a mundane World. It has so much noise pollution so much violence so much going on some of us go to sleep with the TV on we wake up and turn the TV on we keep the radio on all night. We’re just afraid to ask you to get away and get into a conscious contact with a higher power the 12 Steps suggest that you seek a conscious contact with a higher power. My understanding is that if it’s a conscious contact, if you’re conscious of it, you’re going to understand some things second half of the step of course says praying.
Only for the knowledge of his will in the power of the carried out some people think that that’s the only thing they should ever pray for in their life. I don’t believe that I believe religious tradition teaches that we can pray for a lot of other things and even the big book says that we can pray for our usefulness in certain areas and in people’s lives, but it is important I think for addicts to understand that we tend to be selfish that we tend to have self pity and because of our navel-gazing because of us looking at things eagle.
Eccentrically, it’s important that we say as one person said before thy will be done not mine praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. His will comes before my will if his will is for me to make the money fine. If his will is for me to lose this deal fine. Whatever his will is I’m willing to submit to that praying only for the knowledge of his will and the power to carry that out. Thank you.