Step 4: Moral Inventory

Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
      “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”
      (Lamentations 3:40)
Principle 4: Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
      “Blessed (favored by God) are the pure in heart.” (Matthew 5:8)

Since January, we’ve been moving through the first 3 Steps and Principles. 

1.   step one is understanding that I cannot deal with my hurt or habit on my own
2.  step two is understanding that God cares about me and He has the power and desire to help me deal with them – really: to change me
3.   step three is choosing to commit all of my life and will to Christ’s care and control

I recently did some spelunking in some nearby caverns; ever been on one of those guided tours through a cavern?  At some point they make you stand around and they turn off the lights.  It is so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face.  But after 15 seconds or so, you mind fills in the image of your hand so you think you can see it; you can’t see anyone else’s hand inches from your face but you can “see” your own!  Our guide told us that after several minutes your mind begins to fill in white spots for you to “see.”  She also said that after 3 hours in complete silence, your mind begins to fill in voices for you to “hear.”  Our mind tries to compensate for the darkness and actually deceives us into thinking we can see or that there are things to hear!  Weird, right?

In 1 John 2:9-11 we read, “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”  Spiritual darkness blinds us too…and we think we can see!  Se say we have fellowship with God, but our fellowship is more often with darkness: resentment, anger, selfish desires, addictions, indifference toward the God of the Universe, etc.  “If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie,” according to 1 John 1:6.  We deceive ourselves into thinking we have fellowship with God.  Here is a clue: if we do have fellowship with God, we will also desire true fellowship with His people.  We will love and obey Him, and love each other…with Godly love, based on Truth.

The spiritual inventory is the tool the Holy Spirit can use to help remove the deception, but only if we have committed all of our life and will to Christ and are yielded to the Spirit.  Our hurts deceive us into thinking our resentment is justified.  Our habits deceive us into thinking our actions aren’t harmful to us or others.  Our addictions deceive us into thinking we are in control of things.  Our idols deceive us into thinking they are better than God.  We deceive ourselves into thinking we don’t need God, or our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We deceive ourselves into thinking that whatever I believe about God and my relationship with Him is good enough.

Inventory helps us recognize the deception and it is the first test of our decision in Step 3 to commit all my life and will to Christ.

Some more thoughts before we begin Inventory…

Maybe you’ve never been through step 4 before and you’re thinking, “why on earth would I want to do an inventory on myself?”  Maybe you have been through step 4 and you’re thinking, “why on earth would I want to do an inventory on myself?”  Why is Inventory necessary?  Well, it’s necessary because God tells us over and over to do this exact thing; Holy Spirit-led, self-examination is in the Bible, over and over.

Frankly, we will not recover until we’ve learned to recognize and forsake the deceit and deal with the Truth.  We can’t just wipe away the scars of the past, can’t just ignore the deep, hidden troubles, can’t just forget the hurts, and we can’t just pretend the habits don’t exist.

What we ARE going to do, first and foremost, is seek the help of the Holy Spirit; He leads us into all truth.  We do that by reading the Bible daily, I’d recommend 1 John, John, and James.  Also by praying without ceasing and memorizing some Bible verses.  We also need to secure the help of a Godly sponsor, or at least an accountability partner.  Finally, we need to seek as much time as possible with Godly people, at Celebrate Recovery meetings, church, etc.

Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40)
\This is the first test of your decision in step 3.  This is the next step of your recovery; you cannot skip it and expect to continue.