How Long Since You Took Inventory? "Spiritual Inventory," That Is? Have You Looked Deeply Into You Heart To See What Is Really There? It May Scare You To Death? Ponder That My Friend . . .

How Long Since You Took Inventory? "Spiritual Inventory," That Is? Have You Looked Deeply Into You Heart To See What Is Really There? It May Scare You To Death? Ponder That My Friend . . .

The Spiritual Inventory

By Oswald Chambers

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Matthew 7:9

The illustration of prayer Jesus uses here is of a good child asking for a good thing. We talk about prayer as if the state of our relationship to God makes no difference to whether he gives us what we want. Never say that it isn’t God’s will to give you what you ask; don’t throw your hands up in defeat. Take a spiritual inventory; find the reason. Ask yourself: Am I in the relationship of a good child asking for a good thing? Am I rightly related to my spouse, my children, my friends and colleagues? Or am I saying to God, “Oh, Lord, I know I’ve been irritable and angry, but I want a spiritual blessing”? If this is my mindset, I’ll have to do without the blessing until I adopt the attitude of the good child.

We mistake defiance for devotion, telling God that we want to be abandoned to him, when really we just want to abandon our responsibilities. We refuse to take a spiritual inventory. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want when there’s something I haven’t paid for? Have I been asking God for liberty when I am withholding it from someone else? Is there someone I haven’t forgiven, someone to whom I haven’t been kind?

I’m a child of God only through spiritual rebirth. I’m good only as long as I walk in the light. Most of us turn prayer into a pious platitude, using it to get an emotional fix or viewing it as a hazy, mystical experience. Spiritually, we are all good at producing fogs. If we take an inventory, we will see very clearly what we must set right—a friendship, a debt, a temperament. There’s no point in praying unless we are living as children of God. Once we are, then, Jesus says, “Everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:8).

Adapted for this venue by https://utmost.org/modern-classic/the-spiritual-inventory/.