“Dear God, please set aside
anything I think I know about myself,
about my disease,
about the Big Book,
the 12 Steps,
the Program,
the Fellowship,
the people in the fellowship,
and all spiritual terms,
especially you God;
so that I may have an open mind and
a new experience with all these things.
Please help me see the Truth. Amen.”
“The Set-Aside Prayer” (sometimes referred to as the “Lay-Aside Prayer”), as stated here, is not word-for-word stated in the Big Book; but statements and ideas that have inspired the prayer can be found in the Big Book on the pages given.
Our spiritual advisors have found that this prayer seems to have a profound affect when used while taking someone through Steps 1 and 2 out of the Big Book.
Page 42, ¶ 2:
“But the program of action, though entirely sensible, was pretty drastic. It meant I would have to throw several lifelong conceptions out of the window.”
Page 46, ¶ 1:
“We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results…”
Page 47, ¶ 1:
“When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.”
Page 47, ¶ 4:
“Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things make us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will prejudiced for as long as some of us were.”
Page 49, ¶ 2:
“We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion.”
Page 58, ¶ 3:
“Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.”