12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #4
Focus on the Recovery Process
This step is one of the most difficult for many who are working a program of recovery. Many fight against doing it or go to great lengths to avoid it because it is painful to see the truth about ourselves. At this point in our recovery we must face about ourselves that which much of our addictive energy has been trying to avoid: the guilt and pain connected with both how we hurt ourselves and others, and the original pain that contributed to our need to medicate ourselves.
Even though we don’t want to face these realities, God sees it all clearly. Hebrews 4:13 says that all things about us are open to Him. Romans 8:1 tells us that no matter what we have done, we are not condemned because we are in Christ Jesus. He is not a God who judges and condemns, but rather He bore our guilt in the person of Jesus Christ on the Cross. This miracle of grace gives us the courage to face the truth of the damage that we have caused through our addictions and then to release the guilt to Jesus.
Psalm 139 says: “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me…You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord” (v. 1-4). God knows the truth about the actions, attitudes, and words that each of us tries so hard to conceal. A searching and fearless moral inventory challenges us to look honestly at our greatest fears, our worst behaviors and the defenses we use to keep our addictions in place. Thank God that through the indwelling Christ, you will know and embrace the truth about yourself, and thereby find freedom (John 8:32).