January devotional

Hey Counselors! Have you read your January Newsletter yet? Here's the devotional if you haven't - it's a good read!

Interact With God's People

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25

When preparing a soup can for the recycling bin, I rinsed it in excessively hot water and ended up dropping it in the sink. Steel and tin cans hold their heat!

For believers to retain their heat and keep the fire of love for God and zeal for service burning in their hearts, there are disciplines or habits that we need in our lives – including interacting with God's people. One of the many benefits of interacting with God’s people is that it encourages us to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8). As leaders in ministry, interacting with God’s people is a dual-opportunity to be held accountable by our leaders and to give accountability – especially to the younger women and girls that are within our sphere of influence (Titus 2:3-6).

Accountability is vital to the body. God’s Word says, Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they watch over you as those who must give an account (Hebrews 13:17, TNIV).

Yet according to a recent Barna Group study, accountability is not regularly taking place in the church. Barna Group reported, “Although there were a few subgroups that were more likely than average to experience church-based accountability, there was not a single segment for which even one out of every five people said their church does anything to hold them accountable. Among the 5% who said the church holds them accountable, there were seven primary approaches to oversight that were described. The most common was through small groups. Putting those figures in context, the survey found that 22% of adults were involved in a small group, which means only 7% of all small group attendees identified accountability as one of the functions fulfilled by their group.”

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing (Hebrews 10:25). This is an oft-quoted verse on the necessity of regularly gathering with the saints to worship. Truly, worship is central, but not exclusive to interacting with God’s people! Read the verse that precedes it: Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). We must provide accountability by motivating one another to be loving and good (Hebrews 10:24), building each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11), and teaching and admonishing one another with wisdom (Colossians 3:16).

PASSION Step:

If you are not receiving and giving accountability, seek and welcome it into your life in 2011.

Because the underlying theme of the Christian life is one of being transformed from a selfish and self-driven individual to one who lives for and surrenders control of one's life to God, the practice of accountability for life choices and behavior is central to that process of transformation.

Barna Group