I love The Lord’s Prayer. We say it at the end of many of our AA meetings.
I made an interesting connection between that prayer and the 12 steps of AA. I would love to share that revelation with you—phrase by phrase.
Here we go—Step by Step and the connection to the prayer. First, the prayer.
THE LORD’S PRAYER:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever. Amen”
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THE STEP: Step 1 We admitted that we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.”
THE CONNECTION: Admitting we are not in power and God is.
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THE STEP: Step 2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “Thy Kingdom come.”
THE CONNECTION: We came to know that we COULD be restored.
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THE STEP: Step 3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
THE CONNECTION: We turned our will over to God.
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THE STEP (S): Step 4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Step 5 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Step 6 Became willing to have God remove all of our defects of character. Step 7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
THE CONNECTION: “Our daily bread” being the provision and help we receive with working steps 4 through 7—searching ourselves, truth-telling, reviewing what is not working, and staying humble.
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THE STEP: Step 8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Step 9 Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
THE CONNECTION: These two steps—8 and 9— about amending our behaviors and forgiveness
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THE STEP: Step 10 Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
THE CONNECTION: Continue the path of searching, although we will be tempted.
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THE STEP: Step 11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, asking only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “For Thine is the Kingdom”
THE CONNECTION: Continue acknowledging our relationship with God.
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THE STEP: Step 12 Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry the message to others who still suffer, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: “And the Power and the Glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
THE CONNECTION: The spiritual awakening to our new power through God, to help ourselves and then to help others.
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I pray that you feel the spiritual connection as I did.
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”
Matthew 6:6
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