Spiritual Inventories

Where are you right now? I mean with your relationship with God and others. It's important to know where you are because your eternal life depends on it! It's time for a spiritual inventory (SI). I started to write moral inventory, but it's much more than that!

Morality is having concern to what is right or wrong in behavior and thinking. It is whether we have bad or good character -  or own qualities, or lack of them, either way. Spiritual is for a Christian, our relationship with God - whether we are in communion with Him, and doing His will.  The metric for measuring our spiritual condition is faith. Some say that sin is the metric, but sin is more of an outcome of doubt, that being a lack of faith.

If a person is certain that they place their trust in God, that is pure faith. That means that God is your Master, His kingdom is your abode, and His will be done. Even Christians sometimes serve another master (themselves), live for the world (in the flesh), and do their own will. Those things are sinful, and as such Christians never have pure faith. If we do things not of God, that is an expression of doubt.

For instance, sin is a choice. We don't have to sin, but we go ahead anyhow. (Romans 7:15). Scripture says "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:38; Matthew 26:41). That is in reference to Christians. When Christiana are tempted, there is a decision-making process. It is one of two things: (1) I will miss out on this pleasure for nothing if there is no God, or (2) I have faith that God is real, but that I will escape punishment for this sin. Spiritual inventories amount to those two criteria.(1) Is my faith real, or (2) do I try to please God? Honest Christians will doubt that God is real because Satan places that doubt there, and too, they will question whether this sin is bad enough to anger God.

Faith is trusting God. Obedience is a demonstration of that trust: We do not doubt His existence and we know His will. The desire to do God's will is love. It is a show of appreciation. What about God should we appreciate?

• Of course, the obvious - that He can save our lousy souls. (And when I speak of God, that refers to Jesus for He is the Way).
• Our very life.
• Each heartbeat and breath.
• Our nourishment.
• Shelter.
• Job.
• Our family and friends.
• Safety.
• Our happiness.
• Mental stability.
• Intelligence, discernment, and wisdom.
• Empathy.
• Our government.
• Our emotions.
• And even death!
• And lastly, our spiritual condition.

The entire list is of God. We play a role in each of these things, but they all are of God. The first "appreciation" is what really matters, and the last one is how we stand at this moment. Even though God allows us communion with Him, it's not on our terms but His. We commune with God when sin is less, and when faith is more because one is the reciprocal of the other. If we are in obedience to God, that is counted as faith:

Romans 4:9 "For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness."

Why did Abraham get credited as faith for the works he did? Because he did it without question. He didn't know where he nor God was going as he went up the mountain:

Hebrews 11:8 "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going." 

So Calvinists, like it or not, faith is measured by obedience. True, we have liberty to sin, but whether we do or not is a measure of our faith. Why so? Because obedience is how we show love to God:

John 14:15 " “If you love Me, keep My commandments." 

The Greatest Commandment is to love God.

Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37  Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” 

 I included the entire statement for a reason. The legalists were asking Jesus about the law (verse 36). Loving God, and loving others, according to Jesus are the basis of the Law. Therefore, a measure of how much we love God and others, like it or not, is the Ten Commandments.

Essentially, our spiritual condition is how much we love God and others, and the metric for loving is those Laws which were written in stone to endure forever.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

Jesus is the reason for the Law. It was written so that we could do a spiritual inventory - so that we'd know the degree of communion which we have with the Lord! The Law is valid forever (Matthew 5:18).  It is for two uses: our own and God's. (Matthew 5:19). How common is sin in your life? The presence, degree, and severity of sin is a measure of our spirituality. (Here, degree is how often - our lifestyle).

There are greater and lesser sins. (See my earlier "Thought" on that: http://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2013/12/all-sins-not-equal-just-penalty-or-is.html).

There is always the presence of sin because we are not perfect, and unfortunately, we often sin, and sin often - unless we are where we should be spiritually.

Our spiritual inventory then, is how we measure up to the Commandments, or looking at it the other way, how much do we miss God's mark for us? The first four metrics below are a measure of how we perform to the Greatest Commandment - loving God:

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Be honest here! We know that you don't have pagan gods, but how often do you place your own will above Gods. By doing that, you appease yourself before God. Sin is doing that!
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image. Few sit down and physically carve out an image to worship. However, with our thought processes, we manufacture what is important to us. We are our own gods, the flesh is our idol, and things which please us is what tempts. Pleasure, power, and wealth are some of our carved images, and they come to us with those things which entice, empower, and have. Are you into enjoyment in lieu of worship? Is your career more important than your relationship with God? Are you materialistic? Whose holiday is Easter and Christmas - yours or Gods? Those things are your carved images because you think on them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. You deny that. You never say G_d d____t. Good for you! You're more sly than that! You say OMG or it's actual words! I know: You don't mean anything by that! That's what in vain means! Just let your yes be yeses and your no's no. Why even try to fool God by saying my gosh? He knows the heart's intent.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Few of us are Sabbath keepers. Sometimes, I feel that we should be since it was a commandment forever. However, it seems to be meant for the Jews, and we celebrate Sunday because our patriarchs have determined it's the Lord's Day. Work and even fun should not be done on the Lord's Day. We should not even cook on that day, and neither should people in restaurants! This is where Christians, including myself, fall miserably short! If we revered God on His day, perhaps we would be in closer communion with Him! (Those four our how we measure for God. Added to that, are how we are to love our neighbors - the six below).
5. Honor your father and your mother. A long life depends on this because that is its promise! Foremost among loving others is loving and honoring your parents. Do you mouth off to them, make them serve you, take them for granted, refuse to communicate, belittle them, or even rebel? Truly, I do not see much honor for parents among young people. I honored mine in death, but more so in life! I drove hundreds of miles to visit my parents at least monthly. Do you spend time with yours, and what kind of relationship do you have? Do you use them for your pleasure or do you do things for them?
6. You shall not murder. How clear can this be? Killing is the most hateful thing one can do! Scripture relates hatred to murder. There are no escape clauses: for abortion, for seniors, for the deformed, or anyone. Killing life is murder, and supporting killing is being an accomplice to murder! Even silence is condoning murder. If you hate, you are a murderer! If you are for abortion, you are a murderer. You see, those of Joseph's brothers who stood by as he was sold, were as guilty as those who sold. We all must answer to God!
7. You shall not commit adultery. That seems easy enough! Or does it? That is a major problem because most people have done it in their hearts. You see, adultery is not only what we do with another person sexually but what we desire to do. It may not be outright, but can be casual. Even looking at those who dress provocatively can lead to that so easily as we enter into temptation. Are you the temptress or tempter? When we are immodest or flirtatious, we cause others to sin, and provoke adultery. 
8. You shall not steal. If we take anything that is not ours, we steal. The value is of no matter; it's still stealing. The penalty for unrepented sin is all the same, but the gravity of sin is not. Killing and adultery are great sins, and stealing the affections from another is stealing from someone else. Taking a pencil from the office is still stealing, and so is recording music which is not yours to record! By taking from another, it is displaying disdain against whom you steal. This applies to all these sins - they are all hating either God or another!
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. That is lying. Why lie? To get what we want or to conceal our own misbehavior. Even leaving out part of the story is lying, as is exaggeration and any type of deception. Lies are always sugar-coated with some truth because people aren't stupid! When people cross each other, each strives to protect themselves from harm. Lies are created to protect these gods of self. We can't have others thinking we're sinners can we? Hypocrisy is deceitfulness, and lying. How about gossip/ You may be lying, or maybe just exaggerating. That is stealing another's reputation, and is hatred!
10. You shall not covet.  That's having a strong desire to have what others have. That's keeping up with the Jones, and being materialistic because you see what others have! It is jealousy. Those who despise the have's because they don't have it, are in their hearts coveters. Those who demand that their every need be met by society are coveters. Socialism itself is based on jealousy of others, and it is stealing as it is taken from some to give to others. That's not charity; that is stealing! Wanting another person romantically is coveting if you are unsatisfied with yours and that one belongs to another.

So by these metrics, what is our spiritual condition? How much in communion are we with God? You may even be angry with me, but I'm just a messenger. I am not judging you, but merely suggesting that you judge yourself. I fail my inventory miserably, and bet that you do too! What is it that we all need to do? Change! We dishonor God, do what is right in our own eyes, curse God, skip church and either work or have fun on the Lord's day, manipulate and use our parents for our own pleasure, murder others, lust, steal, and want what is not ours. It appears that we must be our own god, and scripture says that we are. When we disobey, it is our gods we serve. Where do we stand in toppling our god? Have we made ourselves a living sacrifice yet? Have we crucified the flesh for Jesus? 

This is our spiritual inventory. Surely, you did better than me... or did you?