God removed her fear and replaced it with faith with works.

My whole life, I’d been so bound by fear, I’d lost hope for freedom. Through working the Steps, a brilliant light at the end of a long, cold, and dark tunnel suddenly shone forth with a comforting warmth. At each step, however, fears continued to loom. Picking up the simple tool of a Fear-to-Faith inventory helped point me back toward God and the Step Two and Three solution. 

I start by writing down a particular fear. Even just taking the action of putting pen to paper and defining what I’m afraid of takes me a long way. Next, I write about why I have it. Usually, there was a difficult situation in my past, and I concluded that God is not present for me in a particular area of my life. I also do a brief inventory of how the fear has led me to behave in irrational ways. I end the reflective part of the exercise by praying the fear prayer from the AA Big Book, page 68: “God, please remove my fear and direct my attention to what you would have me be.”

Next, I write the “faith” part of the Fear-to-Faith inventory by prayerfully journaling a response to my fear and my reasons for having it. I explore the ways that God is actually present and working in my life. I speak hope into the situation from a position of trusting that my God is actually loving. Even if I feel I’m lacking in faith, I write the faith anyway. That is the magic of this inventory—I don’t have to make it work for it to work. Finally, I respond to the irrational behaviors I wrote by identifying new healthy behaviors. I can ask myself, “What would God have me be?”

It is integral to share these Fear-to-Faith writings with others. I can use this exercise verbally as well, and I often work it into outreach calls as part of a Step Ten share or by itself. I find that the more I share my faith with others, the more the faith grows and comes alive. Through facing my fears and affirming my faith with the support of others who share a common problem and solution, the light of hope and gratitude within grows and spreads.