Step 7 - We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Here Jesus tells us that we are to seek humility, and gives us the example of how little children can be so humble and trusting and how we are to emulate that. Childhood is a time of special innocence. Children respond to their world with delightful honesty and spontaneity. This innocence can also leave them vulnerable to abuse, and it could be that such abuse was the root of some of our addictive behavior. But in God through Christ we have found a loving Father whom we can trust fully with our life, our being. So we can re-gain the humility and trust that we have lost somewhere along the way in our addiction. We can humble ourselves knowing that God will treat this humility in a kind and accepting manner and help us find the healing and strength that we desire and that God desires for us.  

Luk 18:9  And he spoke this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 
Luk 18:10  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. 
Luk 18:11  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 
Luk 18:12  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 
Luk 18:13  And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 
Luk 18:14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. 

As a Christian in recovery, we live by the grace and mercy of God. Realizing this, we live in humility before God, for it is through Him that we have our victories, our peace and our joy. In this parable, we should be able to well identify with the tax collector, or publican as he is called. After having gone through step 4 we should realize how many times and in how many ways we have gone against God's love and will for our life. Being aware of this long list of sins from our past, we can only cast down our eyes, beat our breasts and ask for God's mercy in our lives. We can do this because we have a God of mercy and grace, one who hears our pleas and yearnings and finally gives us justification in our humility before Him. 

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 
1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you. 
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: 
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 
1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, restore, establish, strengthen, settle you. 

The apostle Peter reminds us here to humble oursleves before God. And this comes with a reminder that we can do this in total trust because God cares for us. Humility before God is so important in this 7th step of asking God to remove our shortcomings. It should stem from a realization that we need God in our lives to help us to overcome, that we cannot do it on our own. Furthermore, it is in humility because it has been a choice of God to extend grace to us. It is a gift and not something that we have earned. For that we need to maintain a humble and grateful attitude. There is also a warning here about the evil one trying to devour us. In the case of addictions, this devouring usually comes in the form of our addictive behaviors. But we are promised if we resist there temptations by God's power and the power that He gives us through fellowship, prayer and all of the other disciplines that we have learned while abiding in Him and working our program, that God will then will restore us, establish us, strenghten and settle us. 

1Jo 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us: 
1Jo 5:15  And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we desired of him. 

Here we have a promise that if we ask in accordance with the will of God, then God hears our requests and that we have the requests that we desire. Sometimes we may not know what the will of God is for sure, and only through the answers to prayer do we actually know whether or not something was God's will. In some things, however, we can be very confident of God's will and when we ask for those things we can be confident of an answer to prayer. One thing that we know is God's will for our life is to live a life pleasing to God, full of the fruit of the Spirit, full of the life that the Lord has given us, free from the works of the flesh which we have let into our lives with our addictive behaviors. So in the seventh step, asking God to remove these defects of character is definitely a prayer that the Lord will honor. We can be very confident of this as long as we do our part in our recovery.