For decades I have been promoting 12 Step Groups as one of the best ways for churches and community groups to defeat bad habits, compulsions and addictions.
One block for many Christians is a misunderstanding of 12 Steps. They think the way people talk about AA group meetings is a problem. They do not like the fact that people introduce themselves as Alcoholics.
This small detail is to remind everyone that their enemy is alcohol. Theologically it is not wise to identify as an alcoholic but in those meetings it is a way to say "We are in this boat together".
As I read these steps it is impossible to find anything wrong with them from a biblical point of view.
Steps 1-3 get me into a personal,
caring relationship with God
1. I
admitted I was powerless over my problems-that my life had become unmanageable.
2. I came
to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.
3. I made
a decision to turn my life over to the care of God as I understood Him
Steps 4-6 get me cleaned up morally
and spiritually
4. I made
a searching and fearless moral inventory
5. I
admitted to God myself and to another person the exact nature of my wrongs.
6. Was
entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Steps 7-9 help me change and get
healed in my relationships.
7. I
humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
8. Made a
list of all persons I had harmed; became willing to make amends to them.
9. Made
direct amends to such persons whenever possible except when to do so would
injure them or others.
Steps 10-12 offer a continual
process of healing, peace and growth
10.
Continued to take personal inventory and promptly admitted when I was wrong.
11. Sought
through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God, praying
only for the knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry it out.
12. Having
had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, I tried to carry this
message to others and practice these principles in all my affairs.
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