12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #4
Focus on the Recovery Process
12 STEPS to Recovery — STEP #4
Step four can be one of the most intimidating of all of steps. At the same time, it can lift the guilt and fear that has kept us trapped for many years. First of all, the fourth step is an inventory of ourselves. Many of us easily take the inventory of others and point out their faults and failings while we minimize our own responsibility for our choices and decisions. Step four focuses us directly upon our own inventory and challenges us to be searching and fearless as we look at our own lives. For those who have been accustomed to blaming others, this can be a scary proposition indeed.
Beginning the inventory with the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24 is important. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” This prayer conveys that the person sincerely wants to ask God to bring to their memory everything that they need to accept responsibility for without denial or minimization. God knows each of us intimately with all of our faults (Hebrews 4:13). He will not hesitate to reveal the truth to us if we are willing to see it.
Many people struggle to make a fearless moral inventory because they are afraid. The word fearless does not imply that we have no fear, but that we are willing to walk through that fear to see how we have hurt others, God and ourselves through our addictive practices. It is important to consider not only the defects in our character, but also our strengths and assets. Many of our gifts and talents are hidden by our addiction; they may be underdeveloped; but they are there waiting to be brought to light as parts of the person that God created us to be.
Having recently completed a fourth step again, I can testify to the healing that making an honest moral inventory brings. Don’t hesitate because God assures us “Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10.)
David S