Faith-Empowered Bible Verses That Can Help Support Recovery and Life Transformation
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
James 1:21 – Be Rid of all Filthiness to be Ready to Receive
21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
When you look at Step 6, two words make it worthy of being an entire step of its own. The words are “entirely ready!” The challenge with this step, as outlined in the Alcoholics Anonymous book, is that it assumes that by now, we all are in the mindset of nothing counting but thoroughness and honesty. That is why it is just a simple paragraph tied to previous sections about getting to this point.
If we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at Step Six. We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. Are we now ready to let God remove from us all of the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all – every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 76
This paragraph is a fascinating start to Step Six because it starts with the words: “If we can answer to our satisfaction…” It is tied to the paragraph before it, which is a part of the ending of Step Five.
Am I Truly “Entirely Ready?”
At the end of Step Five, we go and pray and thank God that we know Him Better. Then we review our work. That is where these two steps overlap. Looking at your work so far is an end to Step Five because if something is missing or done wrong, you return to that step(s) and get it done. Why see something wrong in our recovery and leave it like that?
This review is also a start to Step Six because whether I am “entirely ready” begins with whether I am even truly at this point. I am not ready if all the build-up to this point is incorrect. In other words, if I have not been able to be entirely thorough and honest up until now, I am already resisting the process; why pretend as if it is otherwise?
Ephesians 4:17-24 Be Rid of the Old You to be Renewed.
17 So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior [for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, which ]in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
The rest of the steps involve a complete change in how we act and the thoughts and heart behind how and why we act in those ways. We are talking about committing to God to be anything He decides we should be, no matter what He asks us to do. The commitment is to entirely eliminate the old version of ourselves and any mindset of thinking anything is okay because other people do it etc. That is a big commitment to things that many resist by nature.
Let’s go back to the paragraph before the Sixth Step paragraph to see precisely what we need to be able to answer as a starting point for Step Six.
Taking the book down from our shelf we turn to the page that contains twelve steps. Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last. Is our work solid so far? Are the stones properly in place? Have we skimped on the cement put into the foundation? Have we tried to make mortar without sand?
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 75
Keeping in mind the idea we read on page 65 about nothing counting except “thoroughness and honesty,” we look at what we are doing here. Has anything so for not been completely thorough and absolutely honest?
Has anything so for not been completely thorough and absolutely honest?
This has been an attempt to do the being “rid of” the old self part. If we are hiding or avoiding some part of our old self on these inventories or in these early steps, whatever we are avoiding is an area that we have not given over control of. The act of avoiding is an act of attempting to maintain control. We are either trusting God, or we are trusting ourselves. We are either trusting the process or doing our own thing.
Looking back at all we have done so far; thoroughness and honesty are the first part of working on Step Six.
Ezekiel 18:27-28 – Recovery: Understanding and Turning Away from the Old Ways to Live
27 But when a wicked person turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. 28 Since he understood and turned away from all his offenses which he had committed, he shall certainly live; he shall not die.
I want to key in on the part of this verse that talks about when one understands and turns away, then that person can live. Those are the two keys to this step placed directly in the middle of the Twelve Steps. In case you missed it, six is half of twelve, so this is the middle.
In a basic sense, the first six steps are “understanding,” and the next six are “turning away.” This step is the bridge between the two concepts. This step is a critical component that glues the entire process together.
AM I WILLING TO DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING IT TAKES TO BE RID OF ALL OF THAT?
In case you missed it, the chapter changed from the “How it Works” chapter as we ended the Fourth Step and changed to “Into Action.” Step Five focuses on “action” connected to understanding the inventory to help us clearly see our shortcomings or “grosser handicaps.” Step Six looks back at all that and then asks ourselves: “AM I WILLING TO DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING IT TAKES TO BE RID OF ALL OF THAT?”
2 Corinthians 7:1 – Cleansing Myself for Recovery and in Fear of God
1Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
This command to “cleanse” ourselves is similar to the naming of the chapter in the Alcoholics Anonymous book, “Into Action.”
Reading 2 Corinthians 6 gives you a clearer idea of what this verse is connected to. In modern Bibles, this is the start of a new chapter. The word “therefore” tells us that the thoughts are connected and must be considered together. Because everything you just heard is a promise, you should want to cleanse yourself.
Before going into that, let us continue looking into this passage and the Step Six connections. This passage speaks of cleansing ourselves to the point of ” perfect holiness.” I know someone somewhere just protested, declaring that nobody is perfect. That, honestly, is a massive distraction rabbit hole. It says what it says, and it says “perfecting holiness,” so that is what we are supposed to be cleansing ourselves towards (even if we don’t end up there).
Let me ask each person reading this directly. If God is going to take you from how you are right this moment and bring you through a process to cleanse you to a point that someone would call perfect holiness, what would be changed about you? What things would He want to take from your life that you would like to hold onto?
What Does God Want to Take from Your Life that You Would Like to Hold Onto?
That is precisely the premise of all of this. We are each going from where we are right now to this “as perfect as possible” life and the “cleansing” process between who we are now and our arrival at that point.
How hard is the scrubbing going to have to be to get out the stains that we have now as we look at “cleansing’ our lives. On great place to look at a lot of those “stains” in our lives is on a correctly done Fourth Step done with thoroughness and honesty.
Step Six is the step where we go through that list and ask ourselves if I am willing to have God do whatever scrubbing has to be done in my life, no matter how uncomfortable or outright painful, to get to that as perfect as possible.
This step is not complex as far as a concept, but it is possibly the riskiest if you consider one statement: “Be careful what you pray for; you just might get it!”
If you say you are willing and then ask God for that life-scrubbing, He is faithful and will do it. Before you pray that prayer, I beg you to ask yourself if you are entirely sure. If you are still not there, the only prayer to do is one asking God to help you get ready to pray that prayer honestly.
Before you pray that prayer, I beg you to ask yourself if you are entirely sure.
Most of us are probably not ready right away when we reach this point and should spend some time praying for that strength. If we do not, we will not be committed enough to endure the possible pains and uncomfortable situations and turn back.
The key to remember is that the goal is greater than the pain of going through all that.
Now back to the connected chapters. The words directly before the “therefore” described as the promises that should act as motivators:
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 – The Recovery Target: Welcomed by God as a son or daughter.
17Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. 18 And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.
Here we see that we should go through all of that because it is somehow tied to how God welcomes us and how He will see us. It does not say that we will automatically burn in eternal fires if not. Still, it does state clearly that there is an entirely different level of connection with Him if we endure whatever it means to “come out from their midst and be separate.”
What that statement implies is cleared up in the next words that follow the word “therefore.” According to these verses, if we want this higher level of closeness to God, we must cleanse our lives to the point of being as perfect as we can be.
Getting Rid of the Things that have “Blocked us Off From Him,”
That is the key to the close relationship with God that this program, as outlined by the founding members in this book, keeps describing. That is the getting rid of the things that have “blocked us off from him,” as noted on page 71 of the Alcoholics Anonymous book.
That brings us back to the one paragraph that is in the Alcoholics Anonymous book about Step Six:
Can He now take them all – every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 76
Too many people brush over this step as if it was a tiny speed bump on the journey to recovery. My experience is that, if done with nothing but thoroughness and honesty, it is a massive mountain of reality to climb, and when coupled with Step Seven, it is a gigantic commitment.
- A massive commitment to changing
- A massive commitment to doing whatever comes next in the recovery journey,
- A massive commitment to whatever comes next on the faith journey
- A massive commitment to God
One more note about this commitment to God you are making in Step Seven and the seriousness of how these two steps are worked.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-7 – Recovery Commitments Matter. (What About God Commitments?)
4 When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! 5 It is better that you not vow, than vow and not pay. 6 Do not let your speech cause you to sin, and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice, and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For in many dreams and in many words there is futility. Rather, fear God.
That is the implication and significance of what we consider in Step Six and Seven. Is our commitment to allowing God to put us through anything for His empowerment of our recovery a significant vow or the empty words of a fool?
When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools.
You can interpret the tone of this passage and the intended message however you prefer, but the literal words describing what happens if they are empty words is that God will be “angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?”
Now ask yourself: “Am I ready for that degree of commitment?” That is Step Six.
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