Welcome to the Alcoholics Anonymous Christian Workbook and Bible, a resource thoughtfully designed to guide you through meetings, it is a journey of reflection, faith, and spiritual growth. This workbook combines Biblical principles with the transformative steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, offering you a meaningful way to strengthen your faith while working toward recovery. Each meeting is carefully structured to encourage prayer, self-reflection, and journaling, allowing you to connect deeply with God and examine your personal walk with Him.

Over these meetings, you will find prompts and exercises that encourage you to write and reflect. While it may seem like a lot of writing, this process is essential for growth and healing. Writing allows you to process your thoughts, acknowledge your struggles, and celebrate your victories. Think of this workbook as a personal conversation between you and God—a space where honesty and vulnerability lead to restoration and hope.

We’re here to support your journey, and this workbook is a step toward reclaiming both your life and your faith. Let this be an opportunity to grow spiritually, deepen your understanding of God’s Word, and take meaningful strides on your path to recovery. Remember, you are not alone in this journey—God is walking alongside you every step of the way. Let’s get started and see what He has in store for you!

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.
   2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
   3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
   4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
   5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
   6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
2. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
   8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
   9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
   10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
   11. 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.
   12. 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.

Week1

Recovery Principle Devotional

SELF-PERCEPTION 

Read Genesis 1:26-31

If we have lived in bondage to our compulsive behaviors for a while, we probably see more bad than good inside us.  Many of us tend to see life in terms of all or nothing.  As a result, we probably think we are all bad.  But in recovery, we need a balanced understanding of ourselves.  We need to see that along with our bad points we have also been gifted with strengths.  It’s not an either/or proposition.  A balanced view of ourselves will help us better understand our shortcomings while also giving us greater hope in our potential.

At the end of the fifth day of creation God had made everything except the first people.  The Bible tells us that when he looked at what he had made so far, “God saw that it was good.”  Then God created the first man and woman.  “So God created human beings in his own image.  In the image of God he created them;…Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.  Fill the earth and govern it.  Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’…Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!” (Genesis 1:25, 27-31).

God distinguished between the human race and the rest of creation.  He made us in his very image, with capacities far beyond those of mere animals.  God was (and is) excited about us!  He gave us abilities and responsibilities to reflect his own nature in all of creation.  When he created us, he was proud of what he had made!

Although we have a sinful nature that came as a result of the Fall, we also must remember that we were created in the likeness of God.  There is excellence and dignity inherent in being human that should cause us to ponder our potential for good as well as for bad

Week2

Recovery Principle Devotional

FAITH

Read Genesis 22:1-19

We demonstrate faith just by the fact that we are involved in a recovery program.  If we didn’t have faith in the promise of a better future for ourselves and our family, we wouldn’t put ourselves through the hard work and pain involved in recovery.  But as time passes, we may grow discouraged at the length of the process.  We may have our spirits dampened by the ups and downs along the road, feeling our faith ebb more often than flow.  Some people report instant release from their addictions, but for most of us it will take faith and patience to inherit the promise of a new life.

The writer of Hebrews wrote, “You will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.  For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham….God took an oath in his own name, saying: ‘I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.’  Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised” (Hebrews 6:12-15).  The entire story of Abraham’s life can be found in Genesis 11-25.

The key point to consider here is that Abraham waited 25 years to see the promise fulfilled.  As he waited, there were times when he showed impatience.  At one point he took matters into his own hands, having a son by means of a second wife.  At times he probably wondered if he had ever really received the promise at all.  He even laughed in disbelief when he was told the promise was soon to come about.  But in the end he did receive the promise, and at the end of his life “the Lord had blessed him in every way” (Genesis 24:1).  Let’s keep holding on!  The fact that recovery usually takes time doesn’t mean that our faith is in vain.

Week3

RECOVERY PRINCIPAL DEVOTIONAL

SELF-PROTECTION

READ EXODUS 20:8-11

When we are in recovery, we need to be especially careful to have all our faculties about us.  If we allow ourselves to get overtired, we will be less able to cope with the demands of life.  It will be harder for us to maintain sobriety, and we will be more susceptible to a relapse.

Rest is essential to the maintenance of any kind of balanced life.  The Bible recognizes the importance of rest for people, for farmland, for animals, and for God himself.  Weekly rest was even included as one of the Ten Commandments.  God declared, “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God.  On that day no one in your household may do any work….For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested.  That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy” (Exodus 20:9-11).  “The LORD then gave these instructions to Moses: “Tell the people of Israel: “Be careful to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you from generation to generation.  It is given so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy” (Exodus 31:12-13).

God wants us to have the rest we need for a balanced life.  As part of our recovery program, we should include a weekly Sabbath or intermission.  This should be a time to relax from our regular duties and allow our body to rest.  It should also be a time of spiritual refreshment, a time to reflect on God’s promises and remember that it is God who sustains us throughout the recovery process. 

Week4

RECOVERY PRINCIPLE DEVOTIONAL

LOVE

READ RUTH 2:4-18

“Please love me!”  Isn’t this the whispered cry of our hearts?  We may not want to admit it for fear of rejection, but we all are hungry for love.  Some of us are starving for affection because of previous losses.  We gather whatever crumbs we can find to fill that hunger deep inside.

Ruth was a young woman who had known loss and hunger.  Her husband died, leaving her without any means of emotional or physical sustenance.  She followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, to a foreign land and gathered leftover grain from the harvested fields just to have enough to stay alive.  Boaz, the man who owned the fields, was a relative who could marry Ruth, if he so chose, and fulfill her needs for love and protection.  Naomi told her to go to the threshing floor where Boaz was sleeping and curl up at his feet.  Culturally, this displayed a request to be taken care of.  Boaz was quite happy to find Ruth there and later married her, providing the love and provision she had lost and longed for.

As we turn our lives over to God, we need to venture toward developing healthy love, relationships with people and with God.  It’s scary to say, “Please love me,” but it’s worth the risk.  If we don’t satisfy our hunger for love in a legitimate way, we will be driven back toward our addictive/compulsive behaviors.  We can be sure that when we “curl up” at the feel of Jesus, he will be glad to find us there.  He will provide for us, protect us, and love us. 

Week5

RECOVERY PRINCIPAL DEVOTIONAL

PEER PRESSURE

Read 1 Samuel 13:1-14

We are all susceptible to the negative influences of others.  We get pushed into rushed decisions by peer pressure and often find ourselves in trouble as a result.  This weakness should alert us to a defect in our own life and our need for help.

Saul had this defect but refused God’s help.  Samuel had told the Israelites at Saul’s coronation that if they all obeyed God’s commands all would be well (1 Samuel 12:14).  But Saul allowed his men to pressure him into disobedience.  Isreal was at war.  In the midst of battle it was customary to have a priest offer sacrifices; Samuel had promised Saul that he would come at an appointed time to do this.  Saul waited for a while but began to feel pressured because his troops were leaving him.  He knew that it was against God’s law for him to offer sacrifices, but he decided he could wait no longer and di it himself.

Just as Saul finished his sacrifice, Samuel arrived.  “How foolish!’ Samuel exclaimed ‘You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.  Had you kept it, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.  But now your kingdom must end, for the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart.  The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command’” (1 Samuel 13:13-14).  Saul would suffer the consequences of his disobedience.

If Saul had delayed his action just one more hour, he would have kept his kingdom.  Our tendency to be unduly influenced by others needs to be replaced with strength from God and faith in his plan.

Week6

Recovery Principle Devotional p361

SELF PROTECTION

READ 1 Samuel 14:1-12, 20-29

We once used our addictions to find comfort and help us cope with life’s daily battles.  In recovery, we may have become so focused on the battle at hand that we have neglected our basic physical needs.  We may have forgotten our need to enjoy some of the sweet things for life.  Failure to take care of ourselves can leave us weak and vulnerable.

During a difficult battle, King Saul had declared, “Let a curse fall on anyone who eats before evening-before I have full revenge on my enemies.”…But Jonathan had not heard his father’s command, and he dipped the end of his stock into a piece of honeycomb and ate the honey.  After he had eaten it, he felt refreshed.  But one of the men saw him and said, ‘Your father made the army take a strict oath that anyone who eats food today will be cursed.  That is why everyone is weary and faint.’  ‘My father has made trouble for us all’  Jonathan exclaimed.  ‘A command like that only hurts us.  See how refreshed I am now’” (1 Samuel 14:24-29).

When we are in recovery, we already feel deprived.  We need to make sure that we are being good to ourselves in healthy ways, eating good food and tasting some of the sweet things that life naturally provides.  Recovery isn’t a time for unnecessary deprivation.  If we become too hungry physically or emotionally, we’ll find that we are weary and less able to fight the battles we face each day. 

Workbook

A Time to Choose Acts 9:1-9

1.    When I Continue to pursue my own agenda without asking God for direction, what happens in my life?
2.    Are there areas of my life in which God may have to use extreme measures before I will listen for direction?  which areas?
3.    What will it take for me to listen to God?

Week7

Recovery Principle Devotional

HONESTY

Read 2 Samuel 13:1-24

When past injustices have caused us pain, we often seek to bury them in the deep recesses of our mind.  Being dishonest with ourselves this way, however, almost always allows pain from the past to translate into mistakes and suffering in the future.  We often become powerless against the strength of our inner turmoil.  We lose control of the very feelings we have tried to hid.

Absalom became powerless against his hatred and rage.  They ultimately controlled his life to the point that he fought to overthrow his own father’s rule.  He was outraged when his half brother raped his sister, Tamar.  When King David did nothing to avenge his daughter, Absalom vowed revenge in his heart.  He waited until the time was right and murdered the guilty brother.  This sequence of abuse, family secrecy, denial, unprocessed feelings, and revenge destroyed Absalom’s relationship with his father.  Absalom never forgave David, and he died in a military rebellion against David (2 Samuel 13:1-18-18:33)

We may use our addictive/compulsive behaviors to distract us from the unresolved pain within us.  There may be so many strong emotions that we don’t know how to process appropriately, soi e simply try to stuff them down inside.  Eventually these feelings are expressed in some way.  We need to be honest about our past hurts, express our feelings, confront the guilty, and work through forgiveness.  If we try to ignore these hurts, we will be controlled by our explosive hidden emotions.