"Witfield Hardware, can I help you?" The telephone rang and gave me a well-deserved break from the customers in the store. It was a busy Saturday morning. It seemed that every man in Witfield, my hometown in South Africa, was fixing something that day. My dad owned the hardware store and I worked for him on Saturdays.
There are two things I will never forget about the store and about growing up: Those busy Saturday mornings and stocktaking. Once every year we had to take inventory of everything in the store. The whole family joined in the "fun" as we counted everything from nuts and bolts to lawnmowers and bicycles. I remember how, at that time, I questioned the usefulness of the whole stocktaking business, but today, being in the ministry, I fully realize the importance of regular, accurate stocktaking in our lives. Everything must be accounted for.
The Lord revealed to me this important aspect of our Christian lives and I would like to share it with you. We read in 2 Corinthians 13:5 (Amplified), "Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you - unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?" [See also RSV NASB NIV] . Most people do not like to be tested or examined. What Paul talks about here is not test or examination as we think of it, but rather spiritual stocktaking.
There are four reasons why we as Christians need to take inventory of our lives regularly:
1. What is stolen, must be returned
2. What is broken, must be repaired
3. What is outdated, must be replaced
4. What is old, must be renewed
Join me here for an in-depth look at these for aspects of spiritual stocktaking.
Greetings! 
