Step 4 Bible Verses: Scripture for Your Moral Inventory
The main Bible verse for Step 4 is Lamentations 3:40, a call to examine our ways and return to the Lord. Scripture treats honest self-examination as the road home, not a punishment. The verses below cover looking inward, dealing with resentment, facing fear, and remembering God’s mercy while you do it.
Lamentations 3:40 — the Step 4 verse
“Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!”
The book of Lamentations was written after Jerusalem fell. Everything was in ruins. In the middle of that grief, the writer doesn’t blame everyone else. He says, let’s look at ourselves, and turn back. That is the posture of Step 4.
Lamentations 3:22-23 — mercy every morning
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Read this just before you open your inventory each day. The same chapter that asks for self-examination promises fresh mercy. You aren’t digging through your past to find a reason for God to reject you. He has already decided not to.
Psalm 139:23-24 — asking God to do the searching
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
David doesn’t try to inventory himself alone. He asks God to look and show him. That’s a good prayer to say before you write a single line.
Matthew 7:3-5 — the log in your own eye
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”
This is the fourth column of the inventory, the “my part” column, in Jesus’ words. Columns one to three are about the speck in someone else’s eye. Column four is about the log in yours. Jesus doesn’t say the speck isn’t there. He says start with what you can actually change.
Ephesians 4:31-32 — what to do with bitterness
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Resentment is the first list in the inventory for a reason. Paul names it and shows the alternative: kindness and forgiveness, grounded in having been forgiven yourself.
Hebrews 12:15 — the bitter root
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”
A resentment left alone grows, and it doesn’t stay private. It spreads into how you treat everyone. Writing it down is how you dig it up.
Joshua 1:9 — courage for the work
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.””
Courage is the principle the app gives Step 4. God didn’t promise Joshua he would never feel fear. He promised to go with him. That’s what makes a fearless inventory possible.
1 John 4:18 — love and fear
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
Your fear list will probably be long. This verse names the long-term answer: being settled in God’s love, which leaves less and less room for fear.
Reading these with your inventory
- Start each writing session with Lamentations 3:22–23, then pray Psalm 139:23–24.
- When you reach column four, read Matthew 7:3–5 first.
- When a resentment won’t budge, read Ephesians 4:31–32 and pray for that person, as the book suggests on p. 67 (4th edition).
The Step 4 page explains the inventory columns, and the Step 4 prayer page has prayers for each stage.
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