I made a statement during the message, and very much meant it, but I didn't really think through the depth of how important it was until a friend called it to my attention today. The statement was, "I would rather confess to my accountability partner that my eyes had looked at something they shouldn't have than have to confess to my church and my wife that I had cheated on her." This is absolutely true! Every word of it. But I think there's almost an ultimatum there - at least for anyone who's living in the real world, knows their heart is "prone to wander", and knows that when "sin is crouching at your door", you sure as heck better master it! (see Gen. 4:7) Here's what I mean:
I think we (as men) have a choice. We can either decide to put away pride and desperately seek out Godly accountability OR we can prepare ourselves to become a statistic. Period.
We have stopped (or maybe we never started) confessing our sins to each other. It's humbling, messy, and demanding to admit to someone that you're struggling with vanity - or finding yourself tempted to look at porn - or thinking thoughts you shouldn't about someone who is NOT your wife - or considering skimming money off the top at work - or fighting the temptation to be lazy instead of playing with your kids. Accountability is messy!
BUT...
the consequences of sin - the ramifications of not crying out for help when we very first set our feet on that road - are brutal, painful, and make accountability look like a walk in the park.
It's time to choose. It's time to be a REAL man!
Make the decision not to be a statistic.
Have the difficult conversation so you don't have to have the impossible one!
Don't be a statistic.
For more:
Proverbs 27:17
James 5:16
Galatians 6:1-3
Ecclesiastes 4:12
No comments:
Post a Comment