We don’t like accountability. Oh, we like the idea of accountability. For governing officials. For pastors and priests. For bankers and doctors. But personally? Uh, no thanks.
From the pages of Scripture, an unlikely prophet named Amos helps us learn why our refusal to accept personal accountability is more than simply wrong or foolhardy. His words to the northern capital of Samaria are words we need to hear as well.
Without accountability to God, we will never become all we want to be.
The Prophet Amos spoke to the prosperous nation of Israel who sensed no need for anything spiritual. Amos asked a penetrating question:
Do you put off the day of calamity? —Amos 6:3
These were people who may have recognized a time of accountability to God would come, but they did not believe it was near. So they gave themselves up to a life of spiritual insensitivity, material gluttony, and sensuality.
Part of the image of God within us is a sense of justice. When we see an outrageous wrong, everything within our spirit demands justice. That is, until it comes to the sin we commit — and then we want God to just drop it and forgive.
We are all accountable to God, and the day we stand before Him is unavoidable.
Answer these two questions honestly:
Accountability helps us become who we want to be—but who we never would be without it. Wayne Stiles
If no one is confronting you anymore, you are in a dangerous place. Your blind spots may be revealed one day by tragic consequences (Proverbs 29:1).
We ought to view accountability with God for what it really is—a good thing!
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