Bible Study Lessons | Compassion Back Issues | Drug & Alcohol Bible Study Lessons

12 STEP BIBLE STUDIES

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1st Step: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.

[1-1] GOD IS IN CONTROL; I’M NOT – Trusting in God’s loving control helps me let go of my sick need to be in control
[1-2] I DON’T HAVE THE PLAN – I learn to submit to God’s plan, rather than thinking I can use God to accomplish my own plans
[1-3] I NEED TO HAVE GOD SET MY PRIORITIES – I’m powerless even to figure out what’s important and what’s not; I need God to straighten out those priorities
[1-4] I’M NOT GOING TO TRY TO CONTROL WHAT I FEEL – I need God’s help to simply experience my feelings, rather than trying to use drugs or other means to make difficult feelings go away
[1-5] MY POWERLESSNESS AND THE CROSS’S POWER – Admitting my powerlessness is humbling, but it opens the door to the power of God’s grace for my life
[1-6] POWERLESS TO DENY OUR FEELINGS – Letting go of control over my feelings opens the door to experiencing my feelings together with God
[1-7] POWERLESSNESS OVER GOD’S LOVE – Life gets better when I quit thinking I have to do something to get God to love me or to keep loving me
[1-8] POWERLESSNESS OVER GUILT – I can’t make my guilt go away, and I don’t need to, because Jesus took care of it for me
[1-9] WHO IS MANAGING MY LIFE? – I’ve tried to manage my own life, and I’ve let other forces manage my life; it’s time to let God manage it
ENTIRE SET OF 1ST STEP LESSONS

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2nd Step: We came to believe that a power greater then ourselves could restore us to sanity.

[2-1] AM I CONFUSING GOD WITH THE HIGHER POWERS I USED TO HAVE? – Jesus isn’t going to treat me the way my drugs have treated me, so I need to change some of my expectations
[2-2] GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS UNLIMITED POWER FOR YOU – My willpower isn’t the power for a new life; the Holy Spirit is
[2-3] INSANITY/SANITY – Comparing the insanity of living under addiction with the sanity of living under God’s grace
[2-4] JESUS IS THE POWER FOR YOUR NEW LIFE – I can have a new life living connected to Jesus; without him I’m guaranteed to fail
[2-5] REAL POWER OVER MY DEPENDENCIES – Because of God’s power in me there are lots of things I don’t have to do any more
[2-6] THE TRUE HIGHER POWER – There are a lot of powers greater than myself that have taken over my life, but Jesus’ almighty power and unconditional love make him the highest power of all
[2-7] YOU’RE SAFE WITH GOD’S GRACE – God wants me to have a safe and sane life, and he has the power to make it happen
[2-8] YOUR MASTER’S DEAD!  QUIT TAKING ORDERS FROM HIM! – God’s grace frees me from the need to obey my old insane compulsions
ENTIRE SET OF 2ND STEP LESSONS

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3rd Step: We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

[3-1] “…AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM” – Whether or not my 3rd Step works depends on whether or not I understand God’s grace
[3-2] BEING HONEST WITH GOD ABOUT MY FEELINGS – I can turn my real feelings over to God without fear of judgment or rejection
[3-3] CAN I TRUST GOD’S PRIORITIES? – Dealing with the fear that God doesn’t really care about what I care about
[3-4] COME AS YOU ARE – I don’t have to fix myself up before I come to God; I come to God and he fixes me up
[3-5] DECISION TIME – It’s time to make a choice between going on trying to run our own lives and letting God be in charge
[3-6] I DON’T HAVE ANY CONFIDENCE IN MY GOODNESS; I HAVE COMPLETE CONFIDENCE IN GOD – I can trust that God accepts me because of his unconditional love, not because I’ve qualified for that love
[3-7] MY DOUBTS ARE VALUABLE; I HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WHOM I GIVE THEM AWAY TO –I need God’s help to know when to doubt and when to trust
[3-8] RELYING ON THE GOD WHO WILL NEVER ABANDON YOU – I can turn it all over to God trusting that he’ll never change his mind and reject me
[3-9] THE BLOOD OF JESUS MANAGES ALL GUILT – Peace and sanity can’t happen when I’m expecting the guilty to pay; peace and sanity can only happen when I let Jesus’ blood manage all guilt
[3-10] TRUSTING THE GOD WHO SHARES MY FEELINGS – God became human; he understands and shares my human feelings
[3-11] TURNING OVER MY WILL – 3rd Step work includes letting go of having things the way I want them
[3-12] W.W.P.S.F.D? WHAT WOULD THE PRODIGAL SON’S FATHER DO? – When my understanding of God gets confused, all I have to do is look at Jesus’ description of the Prodigal Son’s father
[3-13] “WE MADE A DECISION…” – Addictions rob me of my decision making ability; God’s grace and his Holy Spirit give that ability back
[3-14] WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE? – Jesus wants to lay to rest my fears about what I’ll lose out on when I turn it all over to him
ENTIRE SET OF 3RD STEP LESSONS

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4th Step: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

[4-1] FOURTH STEP ACCEPTANCE – I can do an honest inventory of myself when I believe that God accepts me completely, including whatever ugly things I find in my inventory
[4-2] STOP INVESTING IN FALSE HOPES – When I stop clinging to the hope that I’m basically a good person, and start putting my hope in God’s acceptance of me, I’m freed to do a truly “searching and fearless moral inventory”
ENTIRE SET OF 4TH STEP LESSONS

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5th Step: We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

[5-1] DROPPING THE “GOOD” IMAGE – When I trust that God loves and accepts me unconditionally, I can quit being in denial about what a mess I really am
[5-2] I’M BULLETPROOF, SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING – I can face the ugliest facts about myself without fear because I know that I’m covered by God’s grace
[5-3] JESUS IS THE ANSWER FOR SHAME – When I’m feeling overwhelmed with shame I don’t have to go into denial or active using; I can simply go to Jesus’ love and redemption
[5-4] NAMING MY PROBLEM – Stating “the exact nature of my wrongs” is a big help in turning my mess over to the power of Jesus’ love and healing
ENTIRE SET OF 5TH STEP LESSONS

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6th Step: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7th Step: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

[6&7-1] ARE YOU READY TO HAVE GOD GET YOU READY? – I can come just as I am to God, bad attitude and insincerity and all, and be confident that he can and will change it all
[6&7-2] ASKING FOR HELP – One of the character defects that I need God’s help with is that pride and embarrassment keep me from asking for help
[6&7-3] ARE MY CHARACTER DEFECTS HIDING MY GOD-GIVEN STRENGTHS? – As God removes my character defects I start to find out who I really am
[6&7-4] HOW IS GOD REMOVING MY DEFECTS OF CHARACTER? – I’ve gotten pretty used to living with my character defects; life without them is full of surprises and discoveries
[6&7-5] REPENTANCE IS A MENTAL TURNAROUND -- The process that the Bible calls “repentance” can result in some amazing changes in the way I look at life
ENTIRE SET OF 6TH & 7TH STEP LESSONS

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8th Step: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9th Step: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

[8&9-1] MAKING AMENDS – LETTING IT ALL GO – “I was wrong” can be the hardest words to say, but they can also be the most freeing
[8&9-2] WHAT KINDS OF AMENDS DO I NEED TO MAKE?  WHAT KINDS OF AMENDS DO I NEED TO AVOID? – I need to work with the Holy Spirit to figure out how to make amends that will help, and not harm, the people I’ve wronged
ENTIRE SET OF 8TH & 9TH STEP LESSONS

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10th Step: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

[10-1] WORKING WITH THE SPIRIT ON CONTINUAL INVENTORY – The more I work with the Holy Spirit on finding out where I’ve gone wrong, the better I get at it
[10-2] I’M A WORK IN PROGRESS – God is never finished with repairing what’s wrong with me as long as I live, and that’s okay
ENTIRE SET OF 10TH STEP LESSONS

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11th Step: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

[11-1] PRAYING HONESTLY – The Bible is full of examples of people opening up and telling God exactly what they’re thinking and feeling, trusting that God’s grace will accept them just as they are
[11-2] HOW’S YOUR “SEEKING” GOING? – God’s grace frees me to explore the ways that work best for me to talk with God
[11-3] STAYING ON MY SIDE OF THE STREET – In my prayer life, and the rest of my life, I need to seek God’s will for myself and not get wrapped up in other people’s messes
[11-4] WORTH THE STRUGGLE – My relationship with God is a lot more complex and unpredictable than my relationship with my drug; am I ready to struggle with those complexities instead of settling for easy answers?
ENTIRE SET OF 11TH STEP LESSONS

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12th Step: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

[12-1] KEEPING RECOVERY BY GIVING IT AWAY – Exploring different ways to share the healing power of God’s love with other hurting people
[12-2] LITTLE DETAILS – “We tried… to practice these principles in all our affairs” – The recovery God is giving me extends into all areas of my life, not just sobriety
[12-3] LOVING THE CRAZY WITHOUT BECOMING CRAZY – God is rescuing me from my insanity, and he wants me to work with him in rescuing other people from their insanity, without me rejoining them in their insanity
[12-4] MY SPIRITUAL AWAKENING NEEDS TO BE ONGOING – As I keep on living with God my understanding of him and his plan for me is going to keep growing and improving
[12-5] NO LIFE REDEEMED BY JESUS IS A WASTED LIFE – God will turn the messes in my life into valuable tools for helping other messed up and hurting people
[12-6] SINNERS HELPING SINNERS – My messed up life doesn’t disqualify me from helping people; it actually puts me in a better and stronger position for helping other messed up people
[12-7] STAY AWAKE! DON’T SLIP BACK INTO THE OLD NIGHTMARE! – I need all the help God can give me to keep away from my old “stinking thinking”
ENTIRE SET OF 12TH STEP LESSONS

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