Daily Reprieve

For those of us in the life and death scenario that our chemical dependency has brought us to, the answer to this question has been focused on what will keep us sane and alive and ultimately make us useful, happy, and free. 

1.  If we have surrendered to the Higher Power through the 3rd step of recovery program, then the will of my Higher Power is to move on to the 4th step. 

2.  Once I have completed the 4th step, His will is for me to continue on to the 5th step, and so on.

3.  If all else fails, just do the next right thing and seek to improve your connection with the recovery group and your Higher Power.

4.  It is important to immediately start and persistently maintain a morning and evening ritual of prayer and meditation.  Praying is talking to your Higher Power, meditating is learning to listen to It, Him, Her.

Some suggestions quoted from the Big Book, 4th Edition, pages 85-87;

“It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels.  We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe.  We are not cured of alcoholism.  What we really have is a DAILY REPRIEVE CONTINGENT ON THE MAINTENANCE OF OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION. (emphasis added)…

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day.  Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid?  Do we owe an apology?  Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once?  Were we kind and loving toward all?  What could we have done better?  Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time?  Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life?  But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others.  After making our review we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead.  We consider our plans for the day.  Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest self-seeking motives.  Under these conditions we can employ our metal faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use.  Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our  thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

In thinking about our day we may face indecision.  We may not be able to determine which course to take.  Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision.  We relax and take it easy.  We don’t struggle.  We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.  What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.  Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times.  We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas.  Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration.  WE COME TO RELY ON IT.” (emphasis added)

One final quote from the Big Book on page 417 that I believe is important to bring out here:

“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.  When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake.  Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; UNLESS I ACCEPT LIFE COMPLETELY ON LIFE’S TERMS, I CANNOT BE HAPPY.”  (emphasis added)

One more quote, this time from the 12 & 12:

“Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous.  How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was all too plain that they were sorely mistaken.  Lacking both practice and humility, they had deluded themselves and were able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them.  It is worth noting that people of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God.  Surely, the novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders in this fashion.  While the comment or advice of others may be by no means infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still so inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves.”