April Devotional Series – Search Me, God, Know My Heart – Week Two
Why is it important to have a sponsor? Why do I need someone to guide me along in my journey through recovery? Can’t I do this thing alone? I’m a private person. I don’t want someone else knowing my problems. It’s nobody’s business what is going on in my life.
I asked those questions and said those things when I first began on my recovery journey. It wasn’t until I read the Scripture that goes along with Step Four that I finally realized God doesn’t desire for this journey to be solo. His desire is for me to find someone I trust to help, guide, and teach me along the way.
Step Four says I am to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself. Oh boy. Here we go! This is about to get real.
The first time I traveled down the recovery road, I did this alone. Just me and God. There is nothing wrong with doing this, but it is best to find someone else to go with you. Someone who has traveled the well beaten path. Someone who understands the bumps along the way. Someone who has overcome the obstacles. Someone who has navigated the journey and knows first-hand just how difficult it is. Here enters a sponsor or mentor.
While it is vital to have God at the center of Step Four and the journey as a whole, having someone else to look at the searching and moral inventory objectively is also key to my healing. My luggage on this journey is packed tight. It is filled with things that cause the weight of it to sit heavily on my soul. It is up to God, me, and my mentor to stop on the road and unpack it—piece by troubled piece.
I like to look at the Bible as not only the story of God, but also our handbook for life.