Some prayers in recovery are long. This one isn’t. The 7th Step Prayer is fifty-two words, and yet for many people working through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, saying it for the first time is one of the most significant moments in their recovery.
What makes it significant isn’t the length. It’s what you carry into it z weeks of honest self-examination, a conversation with your sponsor about things you’ve never told anyone, and a growing willingness to let go of patterns that have caused real damage. By the time most people reach Step Seven, they understand why a simple prayer is necessary. Self-will got them here. Willpower alone won’t get them out.
Key Takeaways
- Step Seven asks members to humbly request that a Higher Power remove every character defect blocking their usefulness to others
- The spiritual principle of Step Seven is humility- not weakness, but honest self-awareness
- The prayer appears in Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 6 (“Into Action”), page 76
- Removal of character defects is usually gradual, not sudden
- Step Ten’s daily inventory keeps the Step Seven work active long after the formal prayer
- Christians find the prayer compatible with biblical themes of surrender and transformation
- Sincerity matters more than setting, posture, or timing
The 7th Step Prayer – What It Says and Where to Find It
The 7th Step Prayer is found in Alcoholics Anonymous (commonly called the Big Book), Chapter 6: “Into Action,” page 76. It appears in the second paragraph of that section, placed immediately after the discussion of Step Six which is intentional. The two steps belong together.
The prayer opens with the words My Creator and closes with Amen. In between, it asks for the removal of every character defect that stands in the way of being useful to God and to others, and requests the strength to carry out God’s will after leaving that moment of prayer.
To read the full official text, consult your own copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, page 76, or visit aa.org, where the Big Book and approved AA literature are available. The prayer begins in the second paragraph of “Into Action.” It is short enough to memorize quickly, and many members do.
What Is Step Seven – and Why Does a Prayer Come With It?
Most of the Twelve Steps involve direct action writing an inventory, making phone calls, sitting across from someone to make an amends. Step Seven is different. The action here is a request. You are not removing anything yourself. You are asking something beyond yourself to do it.
That’s deliberate. According to Alcoholics Anonymous, the spiritual principle of Step Seven is humility specifically, the kind of humility that comes from recognizing you cannot reshape your own character through effort alone. The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, a companion volume published by AA World Services, describes humility in Step Seven not as a virtue to admire but as a practical necessity. Without it, self-will reasserts itself and the old patterns return.
The Difference Between “Shortcomings” and “Character Defects”
This is one distinction that rarely gets explained, but it matters.
Step Six uses the phrase defects of character. That’s inventory language focused inward, on what you found in yourself during Step Four. Step Seven shifts to shortcomings a word that points outward, toward how those defects affect other people.
By the time you reach Step Seven, the question has changed. It’s no longer just What am I like? It’s How have I been failing others? That shift is the quiet beginning of Steps Eight and Nine.
Why Humility Is Step Seven’s Principle – Not Step Six’s
Step Six is about willingness. You become entirely ready. Step Seven is where that willingness turns into an act and the act is asking rather than doing. Humility belongs here because asking, genuinely asking for help, requires it. For people who have spent years managing everything through self-will, that is harder than it sounds.
Where the 7th Step Prayer Appears in the Big Book
The prayer is in Chapter 6, “Into Action,” on page 76 of the standard edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. It follows directly from the Step Six discussion the text moves without pause from becoming entirely ready into the prayer itself.
Page numbers vary slightly depending on the format you’re reading:
| Edition | Location |
|---|---|
| Standard hardcover / paperback | Page 76 |
| Large print edition | Approximately page 91 |
| Digital version (aa.org) | Chapter 6: “Into Action” |
| Pocket edition | Varies – search chapter title |
If you’re ever uncertain which page you’re on, look for the chapter title “Into Action.” The prayer is in the second paragraph of the Step Seven section within that chapter.
What the 7th Step Prayer Actually Means – Line by Line
The following is based on the prayer as it appears in Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, page 76. For the complete text, please consult the official publication or aa.org.
Most pages about the 7th Step Prayer quote it and then offer a general paragraph about humility. But the prayer isn’t a single thought it’s four distinct movements. Each line is doing something different.
“My Creator”
Why not simply God? Why not Lord or Father?
AA uses My Creator deliberately. The program doesn’t tell members what to believe about God. It asks only that they acknowledge something greater than themselves. The phrase My implies personal relationship. Creator points to origin and authority without requiring any particular theology.
For some members, this is the God of their faith. For others, it’s a broader spiritual understanding that developed through recovery itself. The prayer accommodates both without contradiction.
“I Am Now Willing That You Should Have All of Me, Good and Bad”
The word now is easy to miss. It implies that this willingness wasn’t always there that something has genuinely shifted by the time these words are said. And all of me, good and bad is harder than it looks. People often want to surrender their most destructive tendencies while quietly holding onto the parts of themselves they’re proud of. The prayer doesn’t allow that kind of negotiation. It’s a full offer.
“Remove From Me Every Single Defect of Character Which Stands in the Way of My Usefulness to You and to My Fellows”
Three things stand out here.
Every single leaves no room for exceptions not the convenient defects, not the ones that aren’t causing visible problems right now. All of them.
The reason given for removal isn’t comfort, peace, or personal growth. It’s usefulness. The character defects being named are specifically the ones that make a person less available to God and to other people. Recovery in AA has never been a private project.
My fellows extends that outward not just God, not just immediate family, but the people in daily life, in the group, in the community. Character change is framed here as a responsibility, not just a benefit.
“Grant Me Strength, As I Go Out From Here, to Do Your Bidding”
Go out from here marks a threshold. This prayer is said at a specific moment, and then life continues on the other side of it. The phrase acknowledges that the prayer ends and something begins.
Your bidding is total surrender of personal agenda. The person isn’t asking for help achieving their own goals. They’re asking for strength to do what is asked of them, whatever that turns out to be. It’s a quieter request than it sounds. And it closes the prayer without any claim about what comes next.
Step 6 vs Step 7 – What Actually Changes
| Comparison | Step Six | Step Seven |
|---|---|---|
| Language | “Entirely ready to have God remove all these defects” | “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings” |
| Core Action | Internal preparation | Verbal request |
| Spiritual Principle | Willingness | Humility |
| Direction | Inward | Outward – toward God and others |
Step Six without Step Seven is preparation that never becomes action. Step Seven without Step Six is hollow asking words without the readiness behind them. The two steps are designed to flow directly into each other, and most sponsors encourage members to move from one to the other in the same sitting.
Character Defects in AA – What You’re Actually Asking to Have Removed
Character defects in AA are the recurring patterns of thought and behavior that damage relationships and block growth. They emerge from the Step Four inventory the searching and fearless moral inventory described in Chapter 5 of Alcoholics Anonymous. By Step Seven, a member has identified these patterns, shared them honestly with another person in Step Five, and become willing to release them in Step Six.
They’re not personality quirks. They’re the patterns that left unchecked typically fueled the drinking.
| Character Defect | What It Often Looks Like | Spiritual Opposite |
|---|---|---|
| Pride | Refusing help; defending wrong behavior | Humility |
| Resentment | Replaying old hurts; holding grudges | Forgiveness |
| Fear | Avoidance; controlling behavior | Faith |
| Dishonesty | Half-truths; minimizing problems | Honesty |
| Self-centeredness | Making recovery about personal achievement | Service |
| Anger | Reacting beyond what a situation deserves | Patience |
| Perfectionism | Using high standards to avoid trying | Acceptance |
The right column isn’t decoration. In AA’s framework, what replaces a defect is its opposite virtue. The prayer doesn’t ask for deletion it asks for transformation. That distinction matters for what comes next.
How to Pray the 7th Step Prayer
The formal prayer is typically said once, with your sponsor, immediately after completing Step Six together. Many sponsors follow the framing in the Big Book and suggest kneeling not as a requirement, but as a physical expression of humility that some members find meaningful.
You can also pray it alone. Some people read it privately first, then say it again with their sponsor. Others sit quietly in the morning before the formal moment arrives. What matters isn’t the setting. It’s the internal condition: genuine willingness, without an agenda for how or when change should appear.
What mindset helps? Come empty. The prayer isn’t a negotiation or a performance. Many members describe it as one of the quieter moments in their Step work not dramatic, just honest.
After the formal Step Seven moment, the prayer’s spirit becomes part of daily life. When a defect fires in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday, some members return to the language of the prayer in that moment not to repeat the formal step, but to re-ask for the help they know they need.
What Happens After the 7th Step Prayer
This is the question that gets asked most and answered least.
What “Removal” Actually Looks Like
For most people, character defects don’t disappear the day after Step Seven. What tends to change gradually, over weeks and months is awareness. The defect still arises. But the space between the feeling and the reaction slowly widens. A person who struggled with explosive anger doesn’t stop feeling it. They start catching it faster. They choose differently more often.
Many sponsors describe it this way: you’ll know Step Seven is working when you notice the old behavior before it happens, not only after.
What to Do When a Defect Returns
It will. That isn’t failure.
Step Ten exists precisely for this reason: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” The daily inventory keeps the Step Seven work active long after the formal prayer. When a defect surfaces, the response isn’t to go back and formally repeat Step Seven it’s to notice it honestly and ask again in that moment for the help to respond differently.
Progress, not perfection is the phrase AA uses deliberately.
Common Mistakes When Working Step Seven
- Saying the prayer before Step Six is genuinely complete. The willingness has to be real before the prayer carries weight. If there are defects you haven’t acknowledged or discussed with a sponsor, the prayer becomes a formality rather than a sincere request.
- Expecting visible change quickly. Watching yourself for signs of transformation after Step Seven is itself a form of self-will. The prayer asks for change. It doesn’t schedule it.
- Moving to Step Eight too quickly. Some members rush through Step Seven to get to amends work. Sponsors often suggest sitting with it letting the prayer settle before beginning Step Eight.
- Holding one defect back. The prayer says every single defect. If there’s one you’re protecting a coping habit you’re not ready to lose, a part of your identity you’re holding onto that’s worth naming honestly to your sponsor before you say the words.
The 7th Step Prayer AA Through a Christian Lens
A note before this section: Alcoholics Anonymous is not a Christian organization and does not endorse any particular religion. What follows is a Christian reflection on the prayer’s themes offered for Christians in recovery, and clearly separate from AA’s official teaching.
For Christians in AA, the phrase My Creator can feel unfamiliar at first. Most Christian prayer begins with Father or Lord. But the language isn’t incompatible it’s simply broader.
The word Creator appears throughout Scripture. The Psalms, the letters of Paul, and the opening chapters of Genesis all address God in exactly these terms. The prayer’s content surrender, request for transformation, commitment to service maps directly onto what the Christian tradition calls sanctification: the gradual process by which a person is changed from the inside.
Romans 12:2 speaks of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” rather than shaped by the patterns of the world. The 7th Step Prayer asks for that same transformation the removal of patterns that have conformed a person to destructive behavior, replaced by the strength to live differently.
The Lord’s Prayer includes “Thy will be done.” The 7th Step Prayer closes with “to do your bidding.” The spiritual posture is the same. Complete surrender of personal agenda to divine direction.
Christians in recovery often find that this prayer doesn’t replace their existing prayer life. It deepens it. The act of bringing specific, named defects before God not in vague confession but in honest request for removal is a form of prayer that Scripture encourages and that many Christians find transformative.
2 Corinthians 12:9 –“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” speaks directly to the humility the prayer requires. Asking for help, rather than managing your character alone, is in Christian terms an act of faith.
3rd Step Prayer vs 7th Step Prayer
| Comparison | 3rd Step Prayer | 7th Step Prayer |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Surrendering will and life | Removing specific defects |
| Timing | Early Step work | After Steps 4–6 are complete |
| Core Request | Release of self-direction | Removal of character defects |
| Spiritual Theme | Decision and trust | Humility and transformation |
| What It Assumes | A beginning | Steps 4–6 already done |
The 3rd Step Prayer opens the door to spiritual dependence. The 7th Step Prayer walks through it carrying something specific to hand over. Both are necessary. Neither replaces the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
What page is the 7th Step Prayer in the Big Book?
Page 76 of the standard edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, in Chapter 6: “Into Action.” Page numbers vary slightly by format searching for the chapter title is the most reliable way to find it.
What does “My Creator” mean in the prayer?
AA uses My Creator rather than a specific name for God so that members with different beliefs can use the same prayer honestly. It implies personal relationship without requiring a specific theology. Christians, agnostics, and members with other spiritual backgrounds all use this phrase according to their own understanding.
Do you have to kneel when saying the 7th Step Prayer?
No. Kneeling is a tradition in many groups and is suggested in the Big Book’s framing of Step Seven, but it isn’t a requirement. What matters is sincerity, not posture.
What if character defects don’t disappear after Step Seven?
They rarely disappear instantly. What most members experience is a gradual shift in awareness and response over time. Step Ten’s daily inventory is designed to keep this work active. The phrase progress, not perfection reflects AA’s honest understanding of how character change actually happens.
Can Christians pray the 7th Step Prayer?
Yes. The prayer’s language Creator, surrender, transformation, service aligns with Christian vocabulary and biblical themes. Many Christians in recovery find it deepens their existing prayer life rather than conflicting with it.
How often should the 7th Step Prayer be used?
Once formally, as part of working Step Seven with a sponsor. Many members return to the prayer’s spirit informally particularly in moments when a specific defect is active and they need to ask again for the help to respond differently.
Is there a printable version of the 7th Step Prayer?
The prayer is copyrighted by AA World Services. For personal use, many members copy it by hand from their own Big Book onto an index card or journal page. For meeting use, consult your group’s guidelines. The official text is available through aa.org.
Should the prayer be said with a sponsor or alone?
The formal Step Seven prayer is typically said with a sponsor, after completing Step Six work together. Praying it privately first is common and reasonable. The Big Book’s emphasis is on sincerity and genuine willingness the presence of another person supports that but doesn’t replace it.
Step Seven is sometimes called the humility step, and that description is accurate but humility here doesn’t mean diminishing yourself. It means being honest enough to stop trying to fix yourself alone.
The prayer is short. What you bring to it is not. By the time most people say these words, they’ve done significant work to arrive at genuine willingness. The prayer gives voice to that willingness in a specific, directed way and then sends you back out into daily life to live it.
What comes next, in Steps Eight through Twelve, is built on what happens here. The defects you name in Step Seven are the same ones you’ll address in amends. The humility you practice in Step Seven is the same humility that makes amends possible.
If you’re exploring the other prayers used in AA’s Twelve Step journey, the Serenity Prayer offers a companion reflection particularly on the difference between what can be changed and what must be accepted. The two prayers sit naturally side by side.
Juganta Kumbhar is a Christian pastor, blogger, and content creator who serves in ministry and a local church. He holds a postgraduate degree and has spent significant time writing and publishing Christian and Bible-related content across multiple websites. He also volunteers in social work, believing a life poured out for others is never wasted. He created ChristianPrayerLife to share the life of Christ honestly and warmly the way one friend talks to another hoping every reader who visits feels a little less alone and a little closer to God.