Taking Your Inventory, You Cannot Receive His Love

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3: 16)

Jesus did not come so that we would take our inventories.

A guilty conscience will make it impossible for anyone to believe and receive the love of God. As long as we are looking at ourselves, whether because we have been conned into thinking that we are wonderful because of what we do, or we are convinced that we are evil no matter what we do

This cancer of self-centered condemnation is the legacy for all the sons of Adam:

"And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." (Genesis 3: 10)

From the moment that Adam and Even had the knowledge of good and evil, they looked at themselves, and realized that they did not measure up to right and wrong. Then they covered themselves with fig leaves.

Because they did something which God told them not to do, and by eating from the forbidden fruit, they ended up having a sense of wrongdoing, and that sense of wrongdoing was the very wrongdoing which God did not want them to have. They "surely died" that day, consumed with themselves and their sin, unable to focus on anything else.

AA does not set us free from ourselves, but causes men and women to be more consumed with themselves. If a man has to take his inventory every day, that means that he is looking and thinking about himself.

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken. (AA. pg 86)

You have to think about yourself in order to take your inventory, do you not? Once again, the AA program creates people who end up frustrated and full of self-defeat because they focus on themselves instead of God.

What do you do if you sin in the way that you think? If you are like me, you will find yourself looking at your thoughts and feelings all the time. The madhouse which runs wild in a man's mind brings nothing but bondage and forces us to look at ourselves instead of looking at Jesus Christ.

If we are consumed with ourselves, we will not be able to receive His righteousness and grace. Jesus' death on the Cross is the signal and certainty to all mankind that God will never be angry at the world again, that we do not have to take our inventories and clean up the wreckage of our past to be accepted by God.

Consider the Prodigal Son. When he came back home, his Father rushed to him and offered him nothing but love with both arms open. Instead of stinking rags covered with pigs filth, the Father dressed the Son in a new robe, with a ring and sandals for his feet. This is God the Father, this is our Lord Jesus! He takes us as we are, looking for an easy job, and He goes further.

This God is beyond our understanding. Either you believe it, or you do not. As long as anyone continues to take his inventory, he will not be able to believe and receive the love of God:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

If Jesus has paid for all your sins, and continues to do so, then why would you continue to recount them? If you want to receive Jesus' love, then you must rest in the truth that you are made fully and forever righteous by his one-and-for-all sacrifice.