The Big Book ‘suggests’ that, immediately after completing Step 5 (talking to someone about our personal moral inventory). We think about our progress so far. We ask ourselves if we are completely willing to let God remove from usall of the negative things that we discovered about ourselves in Steps 4 and 5 (character defects). If our answer is yes, we move quickly to Step 7. If there are things we’d rather not let go of now, we ask God to help us become willing.
Step 7 is very simple. We ask God to remove our character defects. The Big Book offers an example of how to do that:
7th Step Prayer – “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 that stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me the strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen” (page 76)
Note that the prayer doesn’t include what we will do to remove our defects. Nor does it tell God what character defects He should remove. God will do the work now. He has always known about our defects. He doesn’t need our help, although He does need our cooperation – working the program and seeking His will for us. When we finish the Prayer, we have completed Step 7.
After doing my 4th & 5th Steps, I was truly willing to give my character defects to a power much greater than me. I knew about the most obvious and undesirable defects, and I wanted to change. But it wasn’t my job to decide which should go first or last. Instead, I did the 3rd Step Prayer often to remind mySelf that God was doing the work this time. I said the 7th Step Prayer every day to reaffirm my trust that God was in fact changing me. The evidence: changes in my behavior and attitudes.
It’s normal to have some doubts. It’s normal to want to hold on to some of our defects of character. It’s normal to doubt that God will remove everything. The 12×12 (beginning on page 70) devotes a chapter to the importance of humility. Well worth the read.