Third Step Prayer

Third Step Prayer

What is Third Step Prayer

The Third Step Prayer is a very important Recovery Prayer, it reads as follows:

God, I offer myself to Thee – To build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life.”

What is the Third Step Prayer

When people start their recovery process in a 12 step fellowship program, they find a sponsor and work through the 12 steps. When they get to the third step, they are to decide to allow God to direct their life. The Third Step reads as follows:

Step 3:
“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

The Third Step is a big step for a lot of people, but once complete, you are well on the road to recovery. At the commencement of the Third Step, you are to recite a prayer. That is the Third Step Prayer. You often do this the first time with a sponsor. The third Step prayer is something that you will often recite through the course of recovery, and some even recite it every morning. Recovery prayers are essential because it gets the struggling addict used to talking and relying on God. As we look over the thrid Step Prayer, we can see a lot of valuable information in it.

God, I offer myself to Thee –

The first part of the Third Step prayer is a declaration that you are giving God control. This declaration reminds us that we are no longer running the show. It says in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 84 “And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone – even alcohol,” We have to be reminded that we have offered our self to God, and he is now in the driver’s seat.

To build with me and to do with me as Thou Wilt.

The second line in the Third Step Prayer is the realization that our life is no longer our business. We are allowing God to build our life in his vision, and we are merely spectators. We are allowing God to do his will in our lives, and we are acknowledging that he knows best.

Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will

When we get into the next line of the prayer, we are acknowledging that we have been in bondage to ourselves. Our life has been plagued with self will run riot. We often made decisions only thinking about our self and not thinking of others. We are now going to stop this way of thinking and release the bondage of self that has run our lives. The definition of bondage is the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control. We will not release that power and control to God. We are beginning to transition from our will to God’s will.

Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life.

The final line in the prayer is of the utmost importance. We now know that only God can relieve our difficulties, and we are giving Him the power to do so. We know that as God removes our difficulties, we will see that he is in charge. In recovery, any struggle that we go through and overcome will be one more way that we can help others. These tribulations in our life will no longer be in vain. We will use then to reach the next struggling addict. We will do everything with a guiding force of God’s Love and God’s Power in God’s will.

This prayer can have special meaning for every person that recites it, and to gain maximum understanding of the Third Step Prayer finding our personal meaning to it is unparalleled. You may want to write out your definition of the prayer to gain insight into what it means in your life. There are other recovery prayers that people learn, but none seems to have the same depth and weight that the Third Step Prayer has for those going through the 12 Steps of Recovery.

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