Desk of Dennis Piller
2/4/2022
What is accountability to you? And why is it a bad word to people?
We are adding a new group of men to Courageous this Monday and subsequently to our morning devotionals as well. We are also adding Grace Family's Kingdom Man group as well. Please pray for them as they are all starting a new season this Monday night.
What is accountability to you? Is it having people in your life who will tell you that you are wrong when you don’t want to hear it? Is it having someone to talk to about life, about your fears and concerns, and you to them? Is it someone who will step in and help out when you really need a friend? What does accountability mean to you? Oh lord, it is so much more than that. So many people don’t want it in their lives because they don’t want people judging them about the quality of the job they are doing or when they are supposed to do that job. So they just avoid letting people get close to them.
Let's take a different tack. When was the last time you took a good healthy long look in the mirror? Really. Are you really objective enough to do that? Let's begin by asking the question. When was the last time you did that? Right! Why has it taken so long? So what have you seen in yourself? Is it a bad thing to take inventory at your place of employment? Of course, how can one be responsible without an accurate accounting? So is it a bad thing to take a strong look at you? What does your life look like through the eyes of others? Not just the world at large but those who you care about or at least connect with at work or for fun occasionally. What do they see? What would they say?
Look this isn’t about beating you down or making you angry even with the challenge. It's about growing. Its’ about discovering more of this great person God created in his image. It is about you having faith in yourself and faith in God that He will complete the good work he started in you. If you want an upper, you don’t need a pill or Monster drink. You need to lay you at the foot of the Cross and die to that old self
who doesn’t want anyone to challenge their comfort zone?
We all get comfortable but nothing happens there other than events and situations that jerk you out. A serious illness in the family, a death, a job loss, a financial setback, a failing marriage, or a wayward child. All of these will pull so hard on you it will make your teeth rattle and they will get you off the couch, off your phone, away from your gaming, and face life as best you can!
Jesus said that “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). I talked to my daughter tonight about what that means. Honesty, she needed me to explain it. But, to prune means to cut off or cut back parts for better shape or more fruitful growth. … When we prune correctly, we can encourage healthy growth and flowering to its fullest potential. Can you get a handle on what that means spiritually? Trimming away dead limbs and branches…unproductive limbs are cut away to make room for new growth.
God does that to his children just as a father shapes and trims the limbs and traits of his children. It also deters pest and animal infestation. In our lives spiritually, pruning cuts off those parts of our lives that are cancerous, unfruitful, unhealthy, and takes away their influence on our lives that corrupt a good tree…a good son of God.
So what is the fruit your tree has been growing? Look inside. You know. Write down what it is.
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Don’t beat yourself up, sometimes the easiest way of moving forward is to let things go. Laziness, apathy, selfishness, anger, unforgiveness, pornography, unfaithfulness, abandonment, whatever that is. Does your fruit look anything like the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23? “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance:” If it's not to the level you desire, we can make a change in that today. Right now! You don’t have to wait for someone to come in with a machete to remove your dead branches. We can lay it down right now and die to them. Give them up. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you…He is the only one who can. It means surrender and that is a good thing when the conqueror is God himself.
John 15; 1-8 The Vine and the Branches
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me?
Accountability? What is that? It is living a life of integrity before God and his creation. It is letting them see him through me. I am accountable to his word, that is my filter and my standard. There can be no other. He calls us to be sons and daughters of action and heavenly substance. He doesn’t want to be on another list you make this year and next. He wants to change your heart from one of stone to one of flesh. Today.
Who are your counselors? Who are your wise men?. Who are those who will lead you in the truth of his word? Too many of you don’t have them. So a son of action joins a Christian group and starts putting himself out there and prays and searches for those of a like Christian mind so that someday he can be that for another.
Loren Daigle Rescue
