The 7th Step Prayer in AA: The Words and the Humility Behind Them
The Seventh Step Prayer is four sentences on page 76 of the Big Book, said once a member is ready to have their shortcomings removed. It is the shortest of the step prayers and the one members find hardest to mean. For help finding AA meetings near you, call (866) 920-0628.
Read more: The 11th Step Prayer in AA: A Daily Practice
The Seventh Step Prayer
As it appears in Chapter 6 of the Big Book, "Into Action", on page 76:
"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."
Members routinely say it in their own words. The book's wording is from 1939 and nobody is grading the phrasing.
What the Seventh Step Asks
Step Seven is to humbly ask a higher power to remove our shortcomings. That is the whole step, and the word doing the work in it is humbly.
It is not a promise to fix yourself, and it is not a resolution to try harder. It is an admission that trying harder has not worked, which is a different and less comfortable thing to say.
Six and Seven Are a Pair
Step Six is becoming entirely ready to have those defects removed. Step Seven is the asking. One is a state, the other is an act, and the prayer belongs to the second.
Members who find the prayer hollow are usually still in the sixth step, not ready to lose the things they are asking to have taken. The book treats that as normal rather than as failure.
"Shortcomings" and "Defects of Character"
The two phrases appear in the same breath and mean the same thing: the habits of self that survived the drinking. Resentment, dishonesty, fear, the need to be right.
The prayer asks for the ones that stand in the way of usefulness to be removed — not every flaw, but the ones that get between a member and being of use to other people. That qualifier is easy to read past and is most of the point.
When and How It Is Said
Usually once, with a sponsor, at the point a member reaches the seventh step in their work. Often out loud, often somewhere quiet.
Some return to it whenever a defect resurfaces, which is most of them, most weeks. Others say it once and regard the asking as done. Both are ordinary.
How It Differs From the Other Step Prayers
The Third Step Prayer is a decision made once, turning one's will over. The Seventh Step Prayer comes later and asks for something specific to be taken away.
The Eleventh Step Prayer, the prayer of St. Francis, is the one built for daily use, because the eleventh step asks for prayer and meditation as a daily practice. If you want something to say every morning, that is the one.
If You Do Not Believe in God
The prayer says "My Creator", which stops some people at the first line. A great many members are not religious, and the programme is written to accommodate that: a higher power as you understand it, with the understanding left to you.
Agnostic and secular members take the step by addressing it to the group, to the programme, or to nothing in particular. What Step Seven asks for is the willingness to stop defending your own defects, and that does not require a theology.
Working It With Someone
Six and Seven are hard to do alone, because naming your own defects honestly is exactly what nobody is good at. A sponsor is the person who has heard it before and will not flinch.
Sponsors are found in meetings rather than applied for. You can search by city and state in our directory, and listings show the format so you can find step meetings near you.