The long stretch of recovery is not held together by a single decision. It is held together by a daily practice of contact with the God who is actually there. Step 11 is that practice — prayer and meditation, seeking to know His will, asking for the power to carry it out.
Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. The nearness of God in your recovery is not automatic. It follows your movement toward Him. This is not because God is distant or reluctant. It is because nearness is a relationship, and relationships require active participation.
The days when God feels absent from your recovery are almost always days when the movement toward Him was absent from your morning. Not always — there are seasons of spiritual dryness that are not the result of neglect. But most of the time, the distance is explained by the direction of the movement.
Step 11 prayer is not a wish list. It is a seeking of God's will — asking what He wants for this day, this situation, this relationship — and then asking for the power to carry it out. The distinction matters. Prayer that seeks only outcomes produces frustration when the outcomes do not arrive. Prayer that seeks God's will produces a person who is aligned with what God is actually doing.
The meditation of Step 11 is not emptying the mind. It is filling it with scripture — sitting with a passage long enough to let it speak, asking what God is saying through it, allowing His word to shape the thinking of the day before the noise of the day does.
Draw nigh. He will draw nigh. This is the promise that makes Step 11 worth protecting.