Promises of Steps 5-12

[janbear]

Message
bluidkiti
Administrator



Age: 44
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Posts: 7079


Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:02 am Post subject: Promises of Steps 5-12

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8 PROMISES OF STEP FIVE
"page 75"
Once have taken this step, withholding nothing,
1) we are delighted.
2) We can look the world in the eye.
3) We can be alone at perfect peace and ease.
4) Our fears fall from us.
5) We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator
We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now
6) we begin to have a spiritual experience
7) The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come
strongly.
8) We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit
of the Universe.
5 PROMISES OF STEP EIGHT
"page 78"
If our manner is calm, frank, and open,
1) we will be gratified with the result.
In nine cases out of ten the unexpected happens. Sometimes the man we are
calling upon admits his own fault, so
2) feuds of years' standing melt away in an hour.
3) Rarely do we fail to make satisfactory progress
4)Our former enemies sometimes praise what we are doing and wish us well.
Occasionally,
5) they will offer assistance.
20 PROMISES OF STEP NINE
"pages 83 & 84"
page 83
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development
1) we will be amazed
before we are half way through.
2) We are going to know a new freedom
3) and a new happiness.
4) We will not regret the past
5) nor wish to shut the door on it.
6) We will comprehend the word serenity
and
page 84
7) we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone,
8) we will see how our experience can benefit others.
9) That feeling of uselessness (will disappear)
and
10) self-pity will disappear.
11) We will lose interest in selfish things
and
12) (We will) gain interest in our fellows.
13) Self-seeking will slip away.
14) Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
15) Fear of people (will leave us)
and
16) (fear) of economic insecurity will leave us.
17) We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle
us.
18) We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do
for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not.
19) They are being fulfilled among us--sometimes quickly, sometimes
slowly.
20) They will always materialize
if we work for them.
13 PROMISES OF STEP TEN
"pages 84 & 85"
page 84
1) And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone--even alcohol.
For by this time
2) sanity will have returned.
3) We will seldom be interested in liquor.
If tempted,
4) we recoil from it as from a hot flame.
page 85
5) We react sanely and normally,
and we will find that
6) this has happened automatically.
We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without
any thought or effort on our part.
7) It just comes!
That is the miracle of it.
8) We are not fighting it,
9) neither are we avoiding temptation.
10) We feel as though we had been placed in a position of
neutrality--safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead,
11) the problem has been removed.
It does not exist for us.
12) We are neither cocky nor are we afraid.
That is our experience.
13) That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
16 PROMISES OF STEP ELEVEN
"page 86-88"
page 86
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 or
self-seeking motives. Under these conditions
1) we can employ our mental faculties with assurance for after all God gave
us brains to use.
2) 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
3) the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.
page 87
4) 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
5) our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of
inspiration.
6) We come to rely upon it.
We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown
all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever
we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from
self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may
ask for ourselves, however if others will be helped. We are careful never
to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time
doing that and 7) it doesn't work.
You can easily see why.
As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful and ask for the
right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer
running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will
be done."
page 88
8) We are then in much less danger of excitement,
9) fear,
10) anger,
11) worry,
12) self-pity,
or
13) foolish decisions.
14) We become much more efficient.
15) We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as
we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.
16) It works-it really does.
7 PROMISES OF STEP TWELVE
"pages 89,100,102"
page 89
Practical experience shows that
1) nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with
other alcoholics.
It works when other activities fail.
2) You can help when no one else can.
3) You can secure their confidence when others fail.
Remember they are very ill.
4) Life will take on new meaning.
To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness
vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of
friends--this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want
to miss it.
5) Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot
of our lives.
page 100
Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and
6) you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your
present circumstances!
page 102
Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness
to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful. You
should not hesitate to visit the most sordid spot on earth on such an
errand. Keep on the firing line of life with these motives and
7) God will keep you unharmed.

Received in email