Step 5 Prayer: Before and After Sharing Your Inventory
A Step 5 prayer asks God for the courage to tell another person the whole truth from your inventory, and gives thanks afterward for being heard. The book suggests a quiet hour of thanks after the Fifth Step but doesn’t print a prayer for it, so the words below are ours. Pray them on your own, or with the person hearing your step.
Before you share
Lord, you already know all of this.
Nothing I’m about to say will surprise you.
But it will be hard for me to say it out loud.
Give me courage to read every line, including the ones I want to skip.
Give the person listening wisdom, patience and a kind heart.
Keep me from hiding behind excuses or making myself look better than I am.
And keep me from making myself look worse than I am, too.
I want to be done with secrets.
Amen.
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
When fear says “not yet”
Many people get to the edge of Step 5 and stall. The date keeps moving. If that’s you, pray this:
God, I’m scared. I’m afraid they’ll think less of me, or tell someone, or leave.
I’ve let fear run my life for a long time, and I can see where it’s taken me.
Help me set the date and keep it.
Amen.
Then actually pick up the phone and set it.
For the hour afterward
The book suggests going home after your Fifth Step and spending an hour in quiet (p. 75, 4th edition): giving thanks to God, rereading the first five steps, and asking whether anything has been left out. Here is a prayer for that hour.
Thank you, God.
I said it, and I’m still here.
Thank you for the person who listened and didn’t turn away.
Thank you that you know me completely and haven’t turned away either.
Show me anything I left out, and give me the courage to go back and say it.
I’ve looked at the first five steps again. Help me keep walking.
Amen.
A short version for the car
God, help me tell the truth today. All of it. Amen.
What this prayer is not
Prayer is not a replacement for telling a person. Some people hope that confessing to God privately will be enough. The step itself names God, yourself, and another human being, all three. The prayers on this page are meant to carry you to that conversation, not around it.
Today
- Name the person who will hear your Fifth Step, if you haven’t.
- Pray the first prayer, then call or text them and ask for a time in the next two weeks.
- Read pp. 72–75 in your own copy so you know what the book asks.
For more on the step, see the Step 5 page. The Step 5 questions help you prepare, and the Step 5 Bible verses are good reading for the hour afterward.
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