Sought

[jerry ralph]

“Prayer…Don’t give God instructions, just report for duty.”
Author unknown

AA Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

I love God, I love Jesus, I love the Holy Spirit. I also love the fellowship I have with other believers. I love the programs of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, and I also love the fellowship I find there. But in all the steps and principles I have taken and learned in AA, this Step Eleven is most profound. When I first got sober and started attending meetings I was told that I needed some contact with God in order to stay sober. I remember some of my first prayers as being very simple and just asking for God to “help me.” Later with a few months sober I began to pray for “things.” God, “give me this,” or God, “change this or that.” These prayers work and do change us on the inside more than the circumstances on the outside. But after I had more time in recovery and had worked more of the steps I came to the Eleventh Step, which set me straight on this prayer business. It’s not about me and “things.” Don’t get me wrong, it is all right to pray for yourself, but I have found that a deeper prayer of “praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out” also includes me and “the things” that I need. It lets God determine the priority of what is needed. I don’t want to be misunderstood and have you think that I am some great prayer warrior, I still sit down to prayer at times and find myself whining and complaining to God, but I am learning. His will for us, and the power to carry that out is all we really need. Bill W. really had a conscious contact with God when he was given this Step. Thanks for letting me share, God is doing for me what I could not do for myself…………..JRE

Jesus teaching His disciples about prayer, share this with me:

“So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10 NAS

“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.”
Mark 11:24 NAS

 

[CWLite]

Man those are big scriptures. I truly believe a lot of Christians still don't get it, it is not God's will for you to be poor or in lack. We have nothing because we don't ask, and when we do we are not spacific. I also love your point on not bossing God around. God is love, but he is no panty waist. True, we are not always to think of ourselves, but seek the Lord's will. I believe that the best prayer requests are wisdom and knowledge. With them, the word of God come alive and feeds your soul and spirit.
Thanks for sharing.