The James Recovery Journey

Faith-Empowered Bible Verses That Can Help Support Recovery and Life Transformation

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

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James 4:14-15 – Faith Versus Fear

¹⁴ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

James 4:14-15 New American Standard Bible

Faith is often a learned behavior that evolves into a learned lifestyle. In many ways, faith is the polar opposite of fear. By “fear,” I am not speaking of a cautious feeling that makes you slightly more careful in legitimate situations. I am describing that unreasonable fear at the core of so many destructive behaviors, bad decisions, and dysfunctional feelings for all of us.

These dysfunctional fears are a catalyst for self-destruction and self-inflicted pain. Some people express these often-hidden fears passively, some express them in more aggressive ways, and others vary how they are expressed to the world.

We must look at ourselves through the microscope and in the mirror even deeper for these to be found. That goes double if we happen to be those people who have the belief that says, “I don’t have any fears.”

The Twelve Step originators describe fear in this way:

This short word somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread: the fabric of our existence was shot through with it. It set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we didn’t deserve. But did we not ourselves, set the ball rolling?

Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 67

They assume it is everywhere in our dysfunctions, even if we are entirely unaware of it. That is what comes next. We go through the list and think about what bad thing we believed would happen in each person, instance, and occurrence on our list. These are the things we are afraid of. That is to say that every item on the list has at least one fear associated with it.

For now, we write the word fear next to the name when we see it and go to the next one. That makes our Fourth Step a map of our fears to follow later.

Once you have written fear all over the list and thought about what the fear or fears are for each instance, most people take another sheet of paper and make a list of the specific fears.  That is often called a fears inventory. There are more complex methods of writing a fears inventory, but the list of fears on another sheet of paper is sufficient for our next task.

Perhaps there is a better way – we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the role to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity.

Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 68

The “better way” is trusting and relying on God. Better than what, though? In context, we have two themes coming together as that answer. This section is about “fear” and the overarching challenge we are looking at through all of this step, “selfishness” and “self-centeredness.” I would even venture to add resentments to the list. It is a choice between relying on all of those disastrous tendencies or relying on an infinite God.

The “better way” is trusting and relying on God.

This fears list is a list of areas that need to be transformed into areas of our lives entirely entrusted to God. The key to no longer having the fear is having the knowledge and deep belief that there is nothing to be afraid of. That faith is rooted in the idea that God will work everything out if you hold onto faith in Him.

We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once we began to outgrow fear.

Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 68

The simple translation is that we pray over each fear. One factor to keep at the front of our minds is that everything we do in this process is done with thoroughness and honesty. That is not to say that a simple “take my fears please” prayer is not enough for God but in terms of this process, that is an epic sidestep of the entire process. There should be serious discussions with sponsors and mentors about what praying over the fears inventory thoroughly and honestly looks like.

Everything we do in this process is done with thoroughness and honesty!

I realize that the people who worked me through this step were on an extreme of the thoroughness spectrum, but they had me have a dedicated prayer time for each fear I had on my inventory after they made sure I had a significant list of fears.

James 3:14-18 – Recovery, Faith, and the Path to Wisdom… Step 4 and Sex?

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¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 3:16-18 New American Standard Bible

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We all have some idea that God’s desire for us is purity, and as we embark on this journey of trusting and relying upon God. Turning your life and will entirely over to God means that God’s desire for your life is the way you will now live your life. The filter of what God desires as the way we live our lives is the filter we view the world through.

Working Step Four, sooner or later, we run across these words in our Alcoholics Anonymous book…

Now about sex.

Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 68

We have landed on what is often an awkward subject for those in faith-based environments. This is, however, A very crucial subject. If you are considering areas of your life to search for such destructive traits as selfishness and self-centeredness, sex lives would seem to be an area rich in potential leads.

For many people, especially in the beginning stages of a faith-based recovery journey, introducing a “sex inventory” is an eye-roll moment.

If there was ever a place to test commitment to thoroughness and honesty, the search through a sex inventory is ideal. That means we must each thoroughly and honestly review our sexual conduct over the years.

We reviewed our own conduct over the years past. Where had we been selfish, dishonest, or inconsiderate? Whom did we hurt? Did we unjustifiably arouse jealousy, suspicion, or bitterness? Where were we at fault, what should we have done instead? We got this all down on paper and looked at it.

Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 69

This is where it gets a little complicated because the Alcoholics Anonymous book gives this clustered information and no visual example of this inventory. Once again, the one I was led through was pervasive, and I don’t know that it always has to be as intensive as how I was told to work through it. However, the method I was put through was definitely thorough and honest.

I have seen a method more commonly employed that looks much like the original resentment list. We first make a list of everyone we have had any sexual interaction with. Then the next column is a small description of what happened. The third column is a catch-all my part section that starts with the list of conduct to review in the paragraph we just looked at. Any other information that may qualify as my part can also go there.

We subjected each relation to the test. Was it selfish or not? We asked God to mold our ideals and help us to live up to them.

Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 69

Again, prayer is an essential connection point with God in this process. Selfishness and dishonesty are at the top of the list of things to search for, find and admit. These are polar opposites of the “wisdom from above,” as we saw in James 3:16-18.

We are either trusting and relying upon God, or we are not. We are either thoroughly and honestly searching for selfishness, dishonesty, and other “my parts,” or we are not.

We pray for the “my parts,” and we pray more for the ones we struggle with and pray more. We rely on God for the answers and strength to get through the tougher ones.

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