Step 11 says, "Praying only for knowledge of God's will for us, and the power to carry that out." So that's what I do every day. I say, "Tell me what you want me to do, and give me the power to do it." Since the Step says that's all I should pray for, that's all I do pray for. The rest of the time I meditate.

Increasingly as we practice the last three Steps of our program, we tend to become more cautious about what we pray for. So much of the prayer we hear seems to be telling God what to do, or attempting to find some way to make God's will conform to ours, rather than the other way around. Prayer too can often suggest that God and I are separate beings, and that the road of recovery is therefore a partnership between God and me, rather than a subsuming of myself, my wants and desires, to God as I understand God.

Meditation offers a path out of this dilemma. Whether we see it as an approach to listening to God, as opposed to telling God what to do, or as a means of getting ourselves out of God's way instead of attempting to influence God, meditation becomes for many of us an indispensable part of our daily devotions.