A Searching Examination

Bible reading: 2 Timothy 1:9 – 11

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

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

Principle 4 – Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Steps 4 and 5)

“Happy are the pure in heart.”

Searching is more than just casually looking around; it implies an intense desire to discover what we’re looking for. What can motivate us to make a searching moral inventory, especially since we know will be uncovering our inadequacies?

God is not looking for people good enough to desire His love. Instead, God wants to find people who identify their inadequacies as a place for His love and kindness to fit into their lives. If this is true, why shouldn’t we be enthusiastic about searching, even for our failures? Every deficiency, every need, every shortcoming can make room for the love of God be displayed prominently in our lives. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, saying, “It is He [God] who saved us and chose us for His holy work, not because we deserved it but because it was his planned long before the world began – to show his loving kindness to us through Christ” (2 Timothy 1:9).

If we approach our inventory with the intention of looking for places in our lives for God’s mercy and love have a chance to make up for our failings, we can be enthusiastic about both the good and bad that we find there. Jude tells us, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 1:21). Knowing that God is looking for places to display His love in our lives, we can make an intense, yet fearless, search.

Our fearless internal search brings to life areas of our lives desperate for God’s love and mercy.

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