Accountability: November 9, 2010

Today's Word for Tuesday November 9, 2010

Accountability

DEFINITION

Subject to the obligation to report or justify something; to hold responsible; answerable.

SCRIPTURE

"Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing evil in his eyes?" You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. Thus says the Lord: Behold I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, for you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel." II Samuel 12: 9, 11, 12.

So that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Romans 3:19.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

Today, more than any other time in history, we believe people do all they can to avoid responsibility. It began in the garden of Eden where we read in Genesis 3:12 that Adam chose to blame his wife Eve for eating the fruit instead of being accountable for his sin and Eve blamed Satan.

In II Samuel (above) David tried to get away with the sin of killing Uriah by doing it in a secret way. David was challenged by Nathan to be accountable to God for taking Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah.

These are two examples as to how easy and natural it is to want to avoid taking the responsibility for our own actions by finding a way to place the blame on someone else. Unfortunately it often works and then an innocent person gets the blame. However there is someone we cannot fool and who does hold us accountable. Hebrews 5:7 tells us, "nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account."

Both of us remember when we were in school having conversations with our peers about what we called "fessing up" to a situation. "Fessing up" is humbling. No one likes to admit that they were wrong, especially if there are consequences, which is usually the case. Human nature makes us eager to accept accountability when the issue is favorable, right or positive. But since we all are of a sinful nature when a situation is negative or breaking a rule we are quick to want to pass the blame.

It begins early in a child's life. Many times we could just look into the eyes of one of our children and see guilt. Then often we could watch our child do all he or she could to make someone else accountable for what he or she had done. How often when children are caught having a fight have we heard: "but he [or she] started it." Then the other one responds by saying: "did not."

The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3:19 that God holds all of us accountable for what we do and none of our excuses or arguments are acceptable.

God wants us to be accountable for our actions. As one gets older you realize that accepting accountability is what demonstrates that you are a person of integrity. Once a person loses their integrity in the eyes of others it is very hard to gain it back. Integrity equips you to be a vessel that God can use. Being accountable allows God to bless you in everyday situations.

LEARNING

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 118:24.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

PRAYER

Dear God, just as You faced Adam in the garden and David through Nathan many years ago, we ask You today to keep us accountable to what You have taught us from Your Word. May we take total responsibility for all of the issues that involve us, both positive and negative, that we may face.