Twelve Steps Of A.a. Step Four Made A Searching And Fearless Moral Inventory Of Ourselves (2)
Many of us come into recovery longing for a new way of life in relationship with God, family and others. In the first three steps we acknowledged our powerlessness, our need for a higher power, and began a life of surrender to God as we currently understand Him. Now in Step 4 we are faced with this requirement for a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. How do we approach that?
The basic questions to ask when making a searching and fearless moral inventory are, "God what does my life look like to you? How have I strayed from that? What needs to go? What needs to be sought after with everything I have in me so I can really live?"
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. (2 Peter 1:5-7 NLT)
Our addictive behaviour is almost certainly rooted in relationships we have experienced in the past. Someone in our past deeply wounded us and we were broken in body and spirit. Our subsequent beliefs and actions flowed from the pain and brokenness of what we experienced and believed in association with that event. Consequently, when doing a step four inventory that is searching, fearless, and moral we must go back to our established errant thinking and ask ourselves – “What actually happened to cause me to think and behave the way I do”? It is at this point that the radical nature of a “searching, fearless, and moral” inventory is revealed. This is why we must look at not only what we did, but why we did it. Uncovering what we have tried to cover up may cause us anxiety and pain. However, now that God is with us, we can do our searching, fearless, and moral inventory in the safety of His love and care.
Like a skillful surgeon God will help us identify and then remove those things that have hindered us in living a good and pleasing life. We will come to know what real life is when we inventory our past and current behaviour in the light of God’s word.
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13-14 NLT)
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