God, I offer myself to Thee

The value of the Third and Seventh Step Prayers

“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.” (Alcoholics Anonymous p. 63)

“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.” (Alcoholics Anonymous p. 76)

I went to an AA club about 30 minutes north of where I live. I have been meaning to check out this club for years. It is located in a beautiful area far north of the city, and the drive there is full of God’s splendor—nature at its finest. And summertime is when I have the time to go—so I went. It was a noon meeting and I was early. I was handed a reading: the 3rd and 7th Step Prayers. I had never been to a meeting before that included these important prayers—prayers I do on my knees each morning. The meeting filled up—every seat in the circle was taken. Even then, people poured in and filled in the chairs and sofas in the back of the meeting room .

As the meeting started with its normal reading of “How It Works,” read by my companion, I felt at home in this new-to-me meeting. I just love AA meetings for that reason. I read my prayers and there were announcements and then we read half of Step Twelve from the Twelve and Twelve. It was a great meeting and I will definitely go back there again.

I have been praying the Third and Seventh Step Prayers on my knees in the morning for many years. Of course my sponsor was the first person to suggest this to me, but I didn’t actually start doing it until I met another newcomer named Fred at the Las Vegas Roundup who told me that’s how the men in AA prayed. I couldn’t memorize the prayers, so I typed them out on a computer and printed them on plain white copy paper, leaving the paper by my bedside. It was a very humbling experience at only 5 months sober, waking up in the early morning hours, grabbing my paper, hitting my knees, and reading the prayers to a God I really didn’t understand.

There are particular lines of each prayer that are especially meaningful and instructive. In the Third Step Prayer, I ask God on a daily basis to relieve me of the bondage of self. God knows I am inherently selfish and self-centered. I need to be relieved of this selfishness on a daily basis. And why? To better do God’s will. What is God’s will? To help others. And I can only do this by staying sober and in a right relationship with my Higher Power.

Take away my difficulties. So I can have a better and happy life? No, that is not what the prayer teaches. God will take away my difficulties so I can once again help others. By the demonstration my Higher Power makes of solving my problems, others will notice and I can then help them walk through similar problems. There were a couple of experiences I had never had when I walked through the doors of AA: I had never cheated on my taxes, and I had never had a drug problem. In my first two years of sobriety, I got to experience both. I was the one who claimed my son on our taxes when it was not my year. I had to admit that fault to my ex-husband and clean up that mess. I had to pay off $4000 and was lucky the IRS put me on a reasonable payment plan.

And, no, I did not develop a drug problem when I got sober. But my partner, whom I loved very much, did relapse into his drug addiction. And I got to experience the impact and losses of drug addiction first hand—and this went on for four years.

The surprising result of my daily Step Three Prayer is that I have in fact been able to use these horrible situations to help other members of AA and Al-Anon who have fallen in the same trap. I have the experience now—and my experience does benefit others. In fact, this other-centeredness comes up again in the Seventh Step Prayer: I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. My usefulness to God and to other people is key in both prayers. My sobriety is no longer about me.

The final line of the Seventh Step Prayer sums it all up: Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding. Amen. Only God can and will grant me the strength to go out into the world and help others. I have now asked him twice for his will to be done. And the conclusion is at the end of the Seventh Step Prayer—Amen. The two prayers are meant to be prayed together.