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.

REACHED STEP 2

PROFILE: 

Ally was always overweight as a child and teenager.  Her weight was a very sore subject in her family, but food was her main comfort for anxiety and depression.  She never felt as though she fit in with others, and her friends seemed to be untrustworthy and two-faced.  Food became her comfort, companion, excitement, and recreation.

Over the years, her weight continued to climb until she was hopeless about the possibility of having a slim body.  She would have fleeting periods of weight loss, but was never able to make a lasting difference.  Years of self-hatred and feeling marginalized by life made her disbelieve that God could or would help her with her food and eating problems.  She struggled for self-esteem and tried many self-help strategies for learning to like herself despite the extra pounds.

When she walked into Overeaters Anonymous, a Twelve Step group for compulsive eaters, she knew that she was powerless over food.  Step One was obvious to her.  But Step Two, coming to believe that a greater Power could restore her to sanity, was a huge roadblock.  The challenge of Step Two was to gain enough faith to believe that God could accomplish what she could never do.  As with all of us, Ally’s faith had to grow as she opened her mind to the possibility that God could actually help her with her specific problem.

By talking to a sponsor and other people in the program, she learned to simply believe that God’s power was there and that he was really interested in her food issues.  She began with hesitant faith to ask God to remove the insanity-the obsessive thoughts about food, the time spent bingeing, the negative thoughts about self, and the damaging effects on her body.  Over time, her trust and belief in God grew as she learned to let go of food one day at a time, follow a food plan, and trust God to help her act sanely around food.  The surrender of her dependency, as we all must learn, came by taking opposite action around food even when she didn’t feel like it.  By surrendering daily, Ally felt closer to God without the “food fog.”  She regained wholeness and sanity around food.

Step Two-

We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

As we have faced our powerlessness to stop the deadly progression of addiction in Step One, we have admitted our complete defeat.  Because there is no hope available within ourselves (our sinful, human condition), Step Two describes the process by which we look outside ourselves to develop hope that there is a Power that can stop the addictive process.

This step begins with recognizing that addiction is a season of insanity.  What usually begins innocently as seeking pleasure, relief, or comfort becomes, over time, a coping mechanism for avoiding reality and responsibility.  The pain of dealing with the upsets, hardships, and disappointments of life can wear down our faith and confidence in God.  Substances and addictive behaviors can be a way of managing our stress and our sense of being out of control.  As time goes on, unfortunately, this coping mechanism turns against us.  Instead of relief and comfort, we find more difficulties and troubles.  We multiply our problems instead of solving them.

When we face the fact that we have been, in a sense, insane to think that we could make life work by acting out in our addiction, we see that our belief in God and in his Son, Jesus, has been nullified.  Our faith has been overthrown by our addictive thoughts and behaviors, and we are headed toward spiritual disaster.  Surrendering the reins of our life is not easy.  We have to face our arrogant thinking and realize that although we believe in God, we have not allowed him into our lives in a real and practical way.  We have not fully understood how desperate we are for his restoration and healing.  When we can honestly accept that we are not God, and that he must have more room in our lives than we have previously allowed, we will come closer to releasing our arrogance.  We have been trying to bend life to our will and have not considered God’s will at all.

In the meditations on this step, we look at scriptures that describe what happens when we try to live in our own power.  First, we begin to think that God is unfair; we begin to question him and wonder if he is really with us, as Job did.  Our “insanity” in this case is in having the arrogance to think that we could actually see the whole picture as God does, and know what is fair or unfair.  Coming to believe for Job meant accepting that he was a finite human, and that God is omniscient.

We may become grandiose like Nebuchadnezzar and think that we have the right to declare how life should revolve around us, our needs, and our wishes.  This king looked at his successes and began to claim the credit for himself.  He lost the humility of remembering that God rules and gives power and success “to anyone he chooses” (Daniel 4:32).  His grandiosity of thought and attitude was revealed by the dream that he had Daniel interpret.  Daniel pleaded with him to turn from his sin of grandiose thinking, but his ego was hooked by the pride of accomplishment: “By my own might power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor” (Daniel 4:30).

God did not allow Nebuchadnezzar to continue in that way; he was humbled by God with a season of insanity and grazed aimlessly with the cattle in the fields until he acknowledged God’s power and sovereignty.  This king’s grandiose thinking is similar to the grandiosity of addiction-we try to make life work by medicating, avoiding, or filling ourselves with more and more sex, food, relationships, or substances.  What eventually happens is similar to what happened to Nebuchadnezzar: we end up wandering aimlessly, humiliated, and not accomplishing much.  His season of insanity was like our season of addiction.

After his pointless drifting, this king came to his senses by looking up to heaven and realizing that life did not revolve around him, but around God.  In the same way, to be relieved of addition, we realize that our way of dealing with life ahs not worked.  Our years of medicating our emotions with substances or compulsive behaviors have not brought the sense of comfort we were seeking.  As we face the insanity of choosing to cope with life in these ways, we look up to heaven to find the all-powerful God.

Addiction is also a type of insanity in the way that it affects our internal world.  Jesus came upon a man who was called Legion because he had so many demons living in him.  Addiction is like that-we become consumed with demons of envy, jealously, fear, and hate that drive us away from relationships and toward the tombs of isolation, bitterness, and hopelessness.  We need Jesus to restore us to our right minds, put us back on our feet, and heal our hearts, as he did for this man.

If our addiction goes on for years, we can become outcasts from society, like the woman in the Gospels with the issue of blood.  We are cut off from relationships and are unable to find acceptance from people.  Isolation and loneliness are terribly painful, and they are not what God intended for us.  It is essential for us to restore our relationships and connections with people if we er to emerge from our addictions and make a successful recovery.  Our insanity must be healed by our reaching out for God as this woman did.  She hesitantly and feely sought Jesus in the crowd, thinking, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”  Reaching out to others is a tangible sign that we are reaching out for God’s healing in our lives.

Once we can face and accept that we have been insane in these ways, we are closer to recognizing how desperately we need God’s touch to restore us.  Coming to believe in Step Two is a process of becoming aware of a greater reality that anything we can see with our eyes.  God is willing at any moment to help us overcome our addictive behaviors and unmanageable emotions.  By engaging n this process, we allow God to restore us to right thinking and to clear faith in his power.  Then we can be free from the isolation, the grandiosity, and the tortured thoughts and feelings that accompany addiction.

STEP 2   PERSISTENT SEEKING

PERSISTENT SEEKING

Bible Reading: Job 14:1-6

We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

One thing that may make it hard to believe in God is that life often seems unfair to us.  We didn’t ask to be born into a dysfunctional family!  We didn’t have any say over the abuses and injustices we have suffered!  We didn’t choose our predisposition toward addiction.  And yet we are held accountable for things we can’t control on our own.  This makes it hard to initially turn to God as the Power to restore our sanity.  He seems unreasonable in his demands.

Job understood these feelings.  In the midst of his suffering he said, “How frail is humanity!  How short is life, how full of trouble!  We blossom like a flower and then wither.  Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.  Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me?  Who can bring purity out of an impure person?” (Job 14:1-4).  These are good questions-ones that most of us have asked in one form or another.  Job persisted in his questioning because deep inside he believed God to be good and fair, even though life wasn’t.  he was honest with his emotions and questions, but he never stopped seeking God.

There is a good answer to the question Job posed, one that will satisfy both our heart and our mind.  It will be found, however, only by those who are willing to work through the pain and unfairness of life and still seek God.  Those who seek him will find him.  In God’s loving arms, they will also find the answers they see. 

Questions for Step TWO

PERSISTENT SEEKING Job 14:1-6

1.  How has life seemed unfair to me in the areas of family?

Trauma/abuse?  addiction?

1. What are my objections to trusting God fully with my addiction and my life?
2. What emotions and questions do I need to be honest with God about?
3. Am I willing to work through the pain and unfairness of my life in order to find God and be freed from addiction?  What holds me back?

STEP 2

GRANDIOSE THINKING

Bible Reading Daniel 4:19-33

We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

When we are caught up in our addictions, its common for us to deny the truth about our situation with grandiose thinking.  We may believe that we’re above it all, a god unto ourselves, accountable to no one.

In his day, Nebuchadnezzar, king of ancient Babylon, was the most powerful ruler on earth.  He believed he was a god and demanded to be worshiped.  Through Daniel God said to him, “This is…what the Most High has declared will happen to [you].  You will be driven from human society, and you will live in the fields with the wild animals…until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses” (Daniel 4:24-25).

This happened just as Daniel had predicted.  At the end of the king’s time in exile, he said, “I…looked up to heaven.  My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever….When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom…with even greater honor than before.  Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven.  All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud” (Daniel 4:34; 36-37).

We are not God; we are accountable to God-a higher power.  This higher power can remedy our “madness” and restore our lives to be even better than they were before our season of “insanity.” God will do so if we entrust our lives to him. 

Grandiose Thinking Daniel 4:19-33  WORKBOOK

1. When in my addiction, in what ways did I display the belief that I was only accountable to myself?
2. How have I tried to have power over the events, outcomes, and people in my life?
3. In what ways did I show that I forgot that God is ultimately in control?
4. How have I avoided acceptance of God’s power over my life?

Step two

Internal bondage

We came to believe that our power greater than ourselves could restores to sanity

Bible reading Mark five: one through 13

When we are under the influence of our addictions, they hold on us, may seem to have supernatural force. We may give up on life and throw ourselves into self-destructive behaviors with reckless abandoned. Others may also give up on us. They may distant themselves from us, as though we were already dead. Whether our insanity is self-induced or has a more sinister origin, there is power available to restore insanity, and wholeness.

Jesus helped a man who was acting insanely. This man lived in the burial caves, and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles: as he often was: he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. Jesus met the demon possessed man and assessed the situation. He dealt with the forces of darkness that were afflicting the man and restored him to sanity. He then sent him home to his friends to tell them what God has done for him. 

We may have gone so far into our addictions that we have broken all restraints. We struggle to be free from the control of society and loved ones, only to discover that our bondage doesn't come from the outside. All hope seems lost, but when there is still life, there is still hope. God can touch us in our insanity and restored to sanity.

1. What self-destructive behavior have I inflicted on myself due to addiction?  List and describe them.
2. How has my addiction kept me from living my own life while finding myself more comfortable in “caves” of isolation, anger/rage, or silent judgment?
3. Have I begun to drop my insanity of living alone and being trapped in addiction?  Am I ready to have Jesus visit me in my “caves” and cleanse me?  If so, write out a prayer to him here:

Step two

We came to believe that a power is greater than ourselves could restores to sanity.

Healing faith

Red Luke 8:43 through 48

Faith is a key to successfully work in the second step. For some of us faith comes easily. For others, especially if we have experienced betrayal, it may be more difficult. Sometimes we must exhaust all our own resources and trying to overcome our addictive disease before we risk believing in a higher power.

When Jesus lived on earth, He was so re-owned for his healing power that crowds of sick people constantly pressed in on him. One day there was a woman in the crowd who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately the bleeding stopped. Jesus realized that someone had deliberately touched him, because he felt he healing power go out from him. When the woman confessed that she was the one who had been healed, Jesus said, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Luke 8:43 through 44, 48.

In order to recover, we must follow the example of this woman. We cannot afford to stand back, hoping for cues, and avoid deliberate action because of our lack of faith. We may have lived with our condition for many years, spending our resources I'm promising cures without success. When we can come to believe in God, a power greater than ourselves, and have the faith to take hold of our own recovery, we will find the healing power we have been looking for.

Week 11

Healing faith Luke 8:43 through 48

How have I tried to control my problems in my own power?

What were the results?

Is there any other way that I would like to try to control and manage it?

Am I ready to do my part, as this woman courageously dead by reaching out for recovery in faith that Jesus power will be there? Write a statement of readiness to God.

Step two

We came to believe that our power greater than ourselves could restore to sanity.

Restoration

Read Luke 15:11 through 24

In the natural progression of addiction, life degenerates. In one way or another, many of us, wake up one day to realize that we are living like an animal. How true this is depends on the nature of our addictions. Some of us may live like an animal in terms of our physical surroundings. Others of us may be a slave to our passions: powerful emotions that dehumanize us and other others.

A young man took an early inheritance and traveled away from home. When the money was spent, the woman just a memory, and the long gone, he restored to slapping pigs to earn a mega living. When he became so hungry that he died, the pigs slap with envy, he realized he had a problem. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father.... so he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. Luke 15:17 through 18, 20.

The fact that we are able to recognize our lives as degenerate or insane, proves that there is hope for a better way of life. We are reminded of times when life was good, and we belong to have that good news restored. When we turned to God, who is powerful enough to help us build something better, we will discover that his power can restores to sanity.

How have my compulsions and addictions led me to compromise my values, convictions, and principles?

How have my compulsions and addictions dehumanized me and brought me shame?

In light of my addictions, independencies have degraded me, am I now open to a deeper level of believing that the power and forgiveness of God will restore me to sanity?

Step two

We came to believe that our power greater than ourselves could restore to sanity.

coming to believe

Saying that we came to believe just a process. Belief is the result of consideration, doubt, reasoning, and concluding. The ability to form beliefs is part of what it means to be made in God's image. It involves emotion and logic. It needs to action. What, then, is the process that leads us to solid belief and changes our lives? 

We start with our own experiences, and we see what doesn't work. Looking at the condition of our lives, we realize that we don't have enough power to overcome our dependencies. We try with all our might, but to no avail. When we are quiet enough to listen, we hear that still small voice inside us same, there is a powerful guy, and he is able and willing to help help us. The apostle Paul said it this way: they the people who need God know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. Romans one: 19. 

Recognizing our internal weaknesses is the first step toward recovery. When we look beyond ourselves, we see that there are others who have struggled with addiction and recovered. We know that day, too, we are unable to Heal themselves. Yet they now live free of addiction behaviors. We conclude that there must be a greater power that helped them. Since we can see the similarities between their struggles and our own, we come to believe that our powerful God can restores sanity. This is where many people are when they get to step two, and it's a good place to be on the way to recovery.

Week 13

Coming to believe   Romans one: 18 through 20

How have my experience is shown me that my way of living is not a satisfying or productive way to live?

How have I seen God's power at work and other people's lives?

What are the signs that I am on the path and in the process of being restored insanity?

Step two

We came to believe that a power greater than our ourselves could restore to sanity.

Read Hebrews 11: one through 10

Hope and faith

Step two is often referred to as the hope step. In coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore to sanity, we will remember what it is like to live safely and have the faith to hope that sanity can return.

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for: it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Hebrews 11: one. How can we be confident that something we want is going to happen, especially if all of our hopes have been dashed? How can we risk believing that the life we hoped for is waiting for us around the bend?

The Bible tells us that the key is in the nature of higher power we look to. We are told that anyone who wants to come to him, must believe that God exists and that he reward those who sincerely see him. Hebrews 11:6. If we see God, as one who is reaching out to help us, we will be more eager to look for him. If our faith has not matured to the point yet, we can ask for help. One man came to Jesus, asking him to help his young son who was afflicted by a demon. He said to Jesus, have mercy on us and help us, if you can. What do you mean, if I can? Jesus asked. Anything is possible if a person leads. The father instantly cried out, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. Mark 9:22 through 24. We can start by asking God to help us have more faith. Then we ask him for the courage to hope for a better future.

Questions

Am I becoming able to believe that God can help me live safely? How?

Can I now believe that as I reach out for God's strength and surrender to him, God's nature is to be present and ready to help and support same choices? Why or why not?