Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

“Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living and reorder our lives under God” Lamentations 3:40 – The Message

Topic for thought

The subject of this week’s session is all about looking at ourselves and recognising some of the entrenched, long-standing resentments and grudges we are holding. Over the last month we have come to see that we have been powerless to successfully change our addictive behaviour no matter how hard we have tried. As a result our lives have become increasingly unmanageable and some of the things we have been doing could be considered to be ‘insane’. We have come to realise that we need a power greater than ourselves who will begin to change us and restore us to sanity, and this power is found in God. While looking at Step 3 some of us made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God and as a result we have begun a new life.

The Issue

The purpose of Step 4 is to bring into the light all our entrenched, long-standing resentments and grudges, recognising how much they damage us and how we need to be rid of them if we are to be free and get well. Harbouring resentments is like storing toxic waste within ourselves and if we do not get rid of this poison these destructive feelings are very likely to lead us into relapse and we’ll be back to where we started.