Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Have you ever had life beat you up or throw you curveballs and you felt like you were doing it all by yourself? God did not create us to do this life alone, yet so many times that's what we choose to do. I believe that one of Satan's most destructive weapons is to take "secret sin" and use it to attempt to keep us in a box. He will use it to utterly destroy a life and render it useless for Kingdom work if we allow his deception and lies to put a freeze on our growth in Christ. So how does the Lord put a plan together for us that allows us to shield off this fiery weapon of Satan? I think one important element is.....
ACCOUNTABILITY
So what is accountability and what does it look like? I don't know what the perfect setting looks like, but I will tell you what it looks like in my life. I have 2 sets of accountability partners. One set is a group of guys that I have been meeting with for a couple of years now. We started as a group of guys meeting at McDonalds once a week and just having an opportunity to be open and honest with each other about what is going on in our lives. I was amazed at how I many times felt that I was struggling with things in my life and I was the only one with those issues or problems. As we met more and built a trust in each other, it took courage, but we were able to open up and be real and vulnerable with each other. We were able to really bounce sound Godly advice off of each other and watch God work in each other's lives. It was also very freeing to find out that we each struggled with different things, but we also had some of the same struggles. It was very awesome to see God work through the goods and the bads in our lives. For every struggle that we fought through together, we were also able to see God place miracles right in the middle of our lives. Miracles in the forms of babies, and marriages, and books, and so many others. Now please understand that our little group is not perfect. We have been tested in the realm of meeting and time. As time progressed and life changed for us all, morning meetings were becoming very difficult for all to attend. So we went through a phase where a couple would meet and the meeting was very sporadic with no consistency. We stayed in contact, but could tell that as a group we were drifting. It was at this time that a couple of us ended up at a men's retreat that we work called Tres Dias. We huddled up on Saturday evening and said a prayer for restoration of our group and decided that we needed to make a time change and commit and let God work. We now meet on Monday nights as best we can. We are really watching it evolve in front of our eyes in trying to not only meet and help each other as guys, but we are also trying to include our families and build family bonds as well. This has been pretty cool. It is still hard for us to all meet together with life as crazy as it is, but we all know how important it is to keep plugging away as best we can. God always blesses that time and I know we all leave better because of it.
My second group is a newly started group, but it too has been very awesome and very helpful. This group is a group of 3 other guys that go to church with me. God put it on my heart and the heart of others at a men's conference with Steve Farrar a short while ago, to get this group going so that we can begin to truly strengthen the relationship bonds within our church. We meet pretty much every Saturday and it has been a true blessing. This group is in the early stages of building that trust and openness with each other, but each passing week is drawing us closer together and allowing God to move in us and through us to share and do life together. Again, I cannot stress how important it is in my life to have Godly men surround me and be able to get Godly counsel whenever needed. It breaks my heart to see folks who live life trying to keep up the perfect image on the outside, but literally being eaten away daily on the inside. If there is one thing we all need to get through our thick skulls, it is this......
There was only one perfect person to ever walk the face of this earth.
We will never be perfect, and the Christian life is not about being perfect.
But our focus in life IS to try to be more like Him every day!
If you have struggles in your life and you think that you are the only person with those particular struggles, know that you are being popped by one of the biggest lies of Satan.
1.) God does not want us to be entrapped by the sin in our lives. Ephesians 4:17-27 is great instruction on how God wants us to do life.
2.) Please know that accountability should never ever become more important than that one on one growth time with the Lord. We can never grow closer to Christ or live like Him if we put our faith in people. Accountability is NOT about putting your faith in people. It's about people putting their faith in God and wanting to help each other in the growth process of a life fully surrendered to Him.
My wife bought Mandisa's new cd entitled "What if we were real?" WOW is all I can say.
The title of the cd is also the title of one of the best songs on this album. I think it is the epitome of the thought process that goes on for all of us in life.
My favorite lines are towards the end of the song and leaves us with a great thought.
If we were more real with each other, would it help us to be more like Jesus?
(Song and lyrics below)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oixViCAIDDM
"What If We Were Real"
Well, I'm tired of saying everything
I feel like I'm supposed to say
I'm tired of smiling all the time
I wanna throw the mask away
Sometimes you just have a bad day
Sometimes you just wanna scream
Tell me I'm not the only one
Tell me that you feel just like me
We keep tryin to make it look so nice
And we keep hidin' what's goin on inside
But what if I share my brokenness
What if you share how you feel
And what if we weren't afraid of this crazy mess
What if we were real
What if we were real
I'm over hidin my tears
I think I'm gonna let em' go
I'm over actin so strong
When I ain't even in control
We make it so complicated
But why does it have to be
Why can't we open our hearts and let everybody see
We keep tryin to make it look so nice
And we keep hidin' what's goin on inside
But what if I share my brokenness
What if you share how you feel
And what if we weren't afraid of this crazy mess
What if we were real
We'd think a little less of ourselves
We'd care about someone else
'Cause we'd know just how they feel
Maybe we could let someone love us
Maybe we'd a little more like Jesus
Why can't we learn to real
Na,na,na,na,na,na,na(yeah,yeah)
Na,na,na,na,na,na,na
We keep tryin to make it look so nice
And we keep hidin' what's goin on inside
But what if I share my brokenness
What if you share how you feel
And what if we weren't afraid of this crazy mess
What if we were real
You've got to be real
You've got to be real
You've got to be real
You've got to
You've got to
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