Recently, I have been on a mission. The mission is to keep those around me accountable in their Christian walk. It has been a blessing and an eye-opener.
The blessing is that the people I have been asking questions about their daily devotions have been excited to have me ask. They seem to have had a renewed focus on their relationship with God.
This, in turn, has had a reciprocal effect on their relationships, their families and their outlook on life. I am blessed to hear the stories of how it has helped them.
The eye-opener is the fact that it has made me more accountable because those whom I am keeping accountable are doing the same for me. Look at what is says in Matthew 7:3: “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (NASB).
What I am doing here is not judging. I am keeping my fellow brothers accountable for their relationship with God. If they/we have this relationship with God, then everything else falls into place. Our relationships fall into place, our work falls into place and our church falls into place.
Accountability is not judgment; accountability in not meddling; accountability is the deep and true concern for your fellow brothers and sisters.
If you don’t have an accountability partner or group, find one. They will help you in ways you could have never imagined.
Accountability helps with the healing of our heart. It helps by listening to others who have gone and/or are going through the same things as you. And it helps by making you not want to let that person down by doing your best in devotion, confessing and listening. But most of all, it makes you not want to let God down.
Once you feel that relationship with God, it makes it harder to let go. And that is where we all need to be. So accountability is good. Try it; you just might like it.
“Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness” (1 Pet. 5:1-2).