How Can I Get Over The Pain Of My Past?

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

The fourth step describes this thing, this often scary, this sometimes overwhelming process, procedure, action…step, known as an INVENTORY. The fourth step doesn’t just stop there, oh no, it uses words like SEARCHING, FEARLESS, and MORAL to describe it. Ok, before we dive into those words, before we feel that punch in the gut that complete and total honesty brings, let’s first talk about INVENTORY—what is it?

According to the dictionary, an INVENTORY is described as a detailed, often descriptive, list of articles; to take stock of; to evaluate; to summarize; a complete listing. For most of us that makes sense for items stored away in your pantry, refrigerator, maybe supply closets at work, raw materials on a job, etc. When it comes to Step 4, an INVENTORY is all that, only it’s applied to you, to me, to our past, to our present.

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
Lamentations 3:40 NIV

Scary right?

Sadly, a VAST number of people walk away from recovery at this point. We don’t want to delve into the pain of our past. We don’t want to share our past mistakes. We don’t want to revisit the abuse. We don’t want to reawaken those feelings. We’re content WITH JUST GETTING BY. We believe IT’S AS GOOD AS IT GETS. We’d rather leave our hurts, our pain buried beneath other pain, suppressed, ignored, festering, poisoning…we choose to live a so-so life and fail to realize that the ABUNDANT LIFE is there for the taking.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 NKJV

Jesus died on the cross to set you FREE, not hold you HOSTAGE. You’re already a hostage, a captive, a prisoner to the pain, the hurts, the secrets of your past. It’s like you’re stuck in a cage, BUT it’s unlocked, the door is open, and instead of swinging it open, you’re choosing to hold it shut. If you want to be freed from the crap of your past you’ve gotta LET GO! An INVENTORY is the process of letting go.

SEARCHING…I examine my past, my hurts, my pain, my actions, my experiences.
FEARLESS…Nothing is off limits; fear has kept me locked in a cell for far too long, I’m letting go!
MORAL…I take the good with the bad, the right and the wrong, maintaining some sense of balance.
INVENTORY…A comprehensive catalog of the events in my life, of things I’ve done and things done to me.

I want to see you set FREE. I want to see you experience JOY. I want to see you living the life you never thought possible!