Summary of Third Step Prayer
- What is the modern version of Step 3 prayer?
- What is the full sobriety prayer?
- How to rewrite the 3rd step prayer?
- What does step three in prayer mean?
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AI Overview
AI Overview
The 3rd Step Prayer, found on page 63 of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, is a pivotal, voluntary declaration of surrender, where members offer their will and lives to a higher power to overcome addiction. It focuses on relieving self-bondage, seeking guidance, and removing difficulties to better serve others.
Key Elements and Purpose
Surrender & Trust: The prayer marks the shift from relying on self-will to trusting a Higher Power, often summarized as “letting go and letting God”.
Purpose: It is designed to remove the “bondage of self,” reduce fear, and foster humility to help the individual stay sober and be useful to others.
Core Text:
“God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”
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Usage in Alcoholics Anonymous
Context: It is the action-oriented prayer for Step 3 (“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him”).
Practice: While often said with a sponsor or friend, it is fundamentally a personal, daily, or moment-to-moment commitment.
Flexibility: The exact wording is optional, provided the intent of surrendering self-will is maintained.
Variations and Interpretations
Other Programs: Similar versions exist in Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and Debtors Anonymous (DA), often focusing on releasing control and overcoming specific compulsive behaviors.
Interpretation: It is seen as a way to “get out of our own way” and accept that recovery is not a solo mission.
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Third Step Prayer
Relieve me of the bondage of self.
Help me abandon myself to the spirit.
Move me to do good in this world and show kindness.
Help me to overcome and avoid anger, resentment, jealousy and any other kind of negative thinking today.
Help me to help those who suffer.
Keep me alert with courage to face life and not withdraw from it, not to insulate myself from all pain whereby I insulate myself from love as well.
Free me from fantasy and fear.
Inspire and direct my thinking today; let it be divorced from self pity, dishonesty and self-seeking motives.
Show me the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.
I pray for all of those to whom I’ve been unkind and ask that they are granted the same peace that I seek.
Help me abandon myself to the spirit.
Move me to do good in this world and show kindness.
Help me to overcome and avoid anger, resentment, jealousy and any other kind of negative thinking today.
Help me to help those who suffer.
Keep me alert with courage to face life and not withdraw from it, not to insulate myself from all pain whereby I insulate myself from love as well.
Free me from fantasy and fear.
Inspire and direct my thinking today; let it be divorced from self pity, dishonesty and self-seeking motives.
Show me the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.
I pray for all of those to whom I’ve been unkind and ask that they are granted the same peace that I seek.