A power greater than yourself is already at work in your life.  As your addiction is being lifted, you will naturally see that because miracles are natural.

Upon the realization of our hopeless addiction, whatever it maybe, we find ourselves totally without solution. This starting point, a little unfamiliar to some, if not all, is actually priceless when it comes to the true resources that are now available to us.

From a hopeless life of self-will and endless addictive behavior, we've now admitted that our own power has demonstrated itself in our lives as totally destructive toward ourselves and everyone in it. We are in constant pain with no alleviation of that devastation without the use of our addiction. Which, lifting the burden for a second, inevitably brings even more destruction into our lives.
   
The continuous loop has to stop, or we'll die.

If you can't pick up something that is really heavy, you ask someone to help you, right? If you're a farmer and you need to plow your field, you rent or buy a piece of machinery that will do it for you. If you don't understand a problem at school or on some homework, you ask someone who might have a little more insight or will help you to understand the problem.

We have already had demonstrations in life of believing a power greater than ourselves will help us solve our problems, no matter how big or small they seem at the time. Now we need help with our addiction.

The Big Book states, “Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
•  That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
•  That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
•  That God could and would if He were sought.”

We are talking about an addiction that is an obsession of the mind. Yes, it portrays itself in our bodies and actions but that is only because our minds put that thought into action. No human has the power to control our minds with their own will. So we need to ask for a power greater than ourselves.

For some this might be a totally new and foreign idea. Who knew? A Power greater than ourselves? Wow, this is going to take some getting used to. For others this might be an old idea that we've already worn out and thrown away. And for a few this concept is the most totally absurd and ridiculous idea we've ever heard.

The truth is that no human has any idea how to run his or her own life. We always look up to people that have what we want and try to do anything we can to follow in their foot steps. That's why in AA a newcomer is asked to find a sponsor that has what they want in their own lives.

The truth is that you will come to believe in a power greater than yourself because when you are truly ready to have your addiction be removed, you will be ready to have no other choice. It might take a second for you to just repeat the idea, “In this situation I can come to believe that a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity.” And that's it.

A power greater than yourself is already at work in your life.  As your addiction is being lifted, you will naturally see that because miracles are natural. Just the fact that you are taking time out from your addictive life style to read this is just one example of how that power is working in your life right now.

The beginning of the workbook of A Course in Miracles states, “Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true. 

Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever you reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required.”

My experience with the workbook was incredible. I was in total hell in my mind all the time and was using alcohol to sedate myself. I did the first 7 lessons in 7 days and for the first time I could just hang out by myself in total peace. So of course I stopped doing the lessons and figured I was cured… Uh, let's just say the feeling didn't stay long.

I used the same experience when I did Step Two for my second time. I did it to the best of my ability the first time, which is all that is asked of you. But my second time going through the Steps, I used the second step in any situation that was causing me any frustration or difficulty. I would get mad at someone for asking me to do something that was totally annoying to me, then I would remind myself, “Okay, in this situation a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity.” It was incredible that a power could actually do this. At first the idea was hard to believe, but as the Course quote states, I was not asked to judge what I was being given, only asked to use it. So the more I did, the more acceptable it became, and eventually the idea was completely welcome and relaxing.

The Course also states, “As the teacher of God advances in his training, he learns one lesson with increasing thoroughness. He does not make his own decisions; he asks his Teacher for His answer, and it is this he follows as his guide for action. This becomes easier and easier, as the teacher of God learns to give up his own judgment.

This giving up of judgment, the obvious prerequisite for hearing God's Voice, is usually a fairly slow process, not because it is difficult, but because it is apt to be perceived as personally insulting. The world trains for reliance on one's judgment as the criterion for maturity and strength. Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgment as the necessary condition of salvation.”

In other words, the Big Book states in the Spiritual Experience section, “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

This is a 12 Step program and a Course for you. “No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it.” A Course In Miracles, p13.

In Step One you see that you need help, you can no longer manage your life. Step two offers you a way out of your difficulties by bringing to your awareness a power greater than yourself that is more than willing to handle your life for you.

In my own experience a power greater than myself restored me to such an incredible sanity that previously I had no definition, and still don't, for the state that was given to me. I never before had brought myself to this awe-inspiring awareness and know that no other human could have given this to me.

The 12 Step program is a gift to yourself, from God, that before you were never willing to accept because, for some reason, you thought you deserved pain and suffering. It's simply not true and your higher power is just waiting to give you everything. It works if you work it, so work it because you're worth it.