Do You Want To Be Healed?
As you may know, every Tuesday at 10:00 the five EBC pastors (Toby, Ryan A, Joe, Jacob, and me) meet for accountability, prayer, and encouragement. I’m sure grateful for those four men who encourage me, who challenge me, and who hear my burdens and my struggles with sin, including the ones I share plainly and the ones they pick up on just by knowing me. It is a special opportunity we have that this is simply a built-in part of our work week.
I think, though, that accountability is a funny word among Christians. Our concept of accountability tends to be the reactive kind. We often think of accountability as a situation where others “hold our feet to the fire” by asking us tough questions to make sure we’re walking uprightly with the Lord. Perhaps we may meet in groups and ask one another a set of questions that are pre-determined, or perhaps we ask questions that are unique to areas of personal vulnerability. Certainly, there can be some value in this kind of accountability. But I think the value is often pretty limited, and if I’m honest, I don’t particularly enjoy being a part of those kind of groups.
I believe there is a better version of accountability, which I would call pro-active accountability. Rather than waiting for someone to ask us about any areas where we are struggling, the best accountability is the kind where we share our woes, our wounds, and our sin with another person or several other people voluntarily. We don’t need to wait for someone to ask the perfect question to finally open up about the fight we just had with our spouse, or the way we are struggling with resentment toward our boss. We can just share that with someone without them asking the question. And not for the sake of gossip, nor for the sake of commiseration, but for the sake of acknowledging our sin to one another and asking for prayer and encouragement.
It is a powerful and soul-healing activity to regularly sit with one or more people, and in sharing prayer needs, to say out loud a way you have recently sinned, or an area of sin that is a real battle you’re currently facing. When you share in that way, they now have a very specific way to ask the Lord to “lead you not into temptation but deliver you from evil.” There sure is power in humbly naming sin out loud to other people, not making any excuse for it, and asking for prayer. That is pro-active accountability, and I simply want to commend it to you as a practice to pursue.
The first step may be to cultivate some friendships where you can share in this way. If you are in a Life Group, or are involved in ministry with others, that may be a good place to find those friendships. Or perhaps you have close friends already, in which case, a first step might be to lead by example in sharing. It can be incredibly scary to take that first step, but there is a lot of value in embracing pro-active accountability. As it says in James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Pastor Ryan Donovan
Categories: Evergreen Connection