12 Steps in 7 Words

I have been Studying the roots of the Twelve Steps and the ideas behind the Steps. I ran across the following the other night when I was examining ties between Alcoholics Anonymous of the 1930s and the Oxford Group. In particular I was reading about the influence Dwight L. Moody had over Frank Buchman, the Oxford Group founder. Moody had referenced the 32nd Psalm and described it using seven words: Conviction, Confession, Forgiveness, Prayer, Protection, Guidance, Joy. Those seven words fall right in line with Buchman’s Oxford Group language of the Five C’s – Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion and Conservation.

Samuel Shoemaker who Bill W. referred to as a co-founder of AA also referenced the Five Cs in his writings. Sam would not deny it when Bill W. said he was a co-founder, he would however give credit to God and the Oxford Group. Could the Five C’s have had an influence on the Twelve Steps or perhaps Moody’s Seven Words that are used to describe the 32nd Psalm.

Let’s look at the 32nd Psalm and then the correlation I see between the seven words Moody used to describe the Psalm and the Twelve Steps.

Here is the text of the 32nd Psalm:

¹ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
         And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old
         Through my groaning all the day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
         My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.  Selah  
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,
         And my iniquity I have not hidden.
         I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
         And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Selah  
⁶ For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You
         In a time when You may be found;
         Surely in a flood of great waters
         They shall not come near him.
⁷ You are my hiding place;
         You shall preserve me from trouble;
         You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.  Selah  
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
         I will guide you with My eye.
⁹ Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
         Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
         Else they will not come near you.
¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;
         But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.
¹¹ Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous;
         And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Let’s begin by looking at verses 3 and 4 where I see Steps 1 and 2. In verse 3 we see a person who is dejected, who is broken, who I think we can say is at the end of his rope. Why else would he be silent, with his bones aching and groaning all day long. He has lost all sanity. He is powerless and his life has become unmanageable.

Verse 4 shows that he is aware of someone else’s presence, that God has had His hand upon him. He is coming under Conviction, the reality of his selfishness and self-centeredness . He is coming to realize that a power greater than himself has been with him and as we shall see in the next verse he calls on his Higher Power to restore his sanity.

In order to turn our will and our life over to the care of God we need to work through a series of principles, or steps if you will. These steps encompass more than just Step Three. If we look at the BB and we look at the way the steps were worked in the late 30s/early 40s, we find that when we turn our will over to God, we do it with a prayer but that prayer does not end with an amen (see BB. pg. 63, para. 2). The prayer is concluded when we complete Step Seven, when we go through Confession, when we ask God to remove all our defects of character (BB. pg. 76, para. 2). Then we must also do Steps Eight and Nine to complete the asking for Forgiveness. We must have our relationship with others right before we can approach God on getting our relationship right with Him.

In Matthew 6:14-15 it tells us we must forgive others before God will forgive us:

¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

We can not make amends to others until we have forgiven them for any harm they have caused us. Yes, we have to forgive them. In many cases it is the resentment that has caused the damage in our relationships with others. Therefore we must forgive them for whatever reason we are resentful towards them. Once Steps Three through Nine have been completed then we have acknowledge our sin, our defects of character and shortcomings to ourselves and God. Once we have confessed all to our Higher Power we have done what is described in verse 5 of the Psalm.

Verses 6 through 8 are Steps Ten through Twelve. They instruct us to pray and to get our direction from God. We can only get direction that comes with Prayer and meditation, meditating on the Big Book and the Good Book. We must pray and ask God for direction. We must also take a daily inventory and ask God for His forgiveness when it’s required. We must continue to practice the principles in all our affairs, which only come through God’s instruction and Guidance.

So, what do we get for all this? We get verses 1, 2, 10 and 11. We get blessings and Protection. We receive God’s mercy. We get to be glad and rejoice because our Higher Power has delivered us from a sorry state of ‘I’, from a state of powerlessness. He has made us upright in heart and righteous, and because of all He has done for us we can shout for Joy.

The only thing left out of the passage is the warning in verse 9. God tells us not to be like the beast with no understanding, which must be harnessed. He tells us that the wicked shall have many sorrows. So, stand strong in the seven words: Conviction, Confession, Forgiveness, Prayer, Protection, Guidance, Joy.  Then you will have found true serenity. You will have true peace and happiness. You will have a life with the true Higher Power, with our God, our Creator.