Daily Devotional

Accountability to God means that there are specific areas of our lives where God has certain expectations.
For Christians, accountability is about stewardship, the proper management of the resources entrusted to us. Accountability involves our recognition that all of life’s gifts come from God; it involves a lifetime disposition of self and all He’s blessed us to enjoy on His altar of service.
One area is our priority. God expects us to yield to Jesus as the Builder. We can’t build Christians. But we must do what He’s mandated as His disciples. We are accountable for evangelism—telling people about who Jesus is and what He’s done for us; for discipleship—teaching people how to rightly use God’s Word; for fellowship—investing our lives in one another, learning how to support one another and to love one another as Christ has loved us; for ministry—helping those who are hurting; for our worship—the rendering of heartfelt, sincere, adoration to the true and living God.
Another area is love. Jesus said, “Love each other, just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command (John 15:12-14).” Christ expects us to love each other in a manner equal to how He has loved us, and that means that our love must be without limit and without restriction. Love is not just a feeling, but an activity. When we love one another, we serve, support, encourage and strengthen one another. We rejoice in each other’s victories, and we help one another through their times of sorrow.
Finally, we are accountable for our testimony. Testimony is more than what we say with our mouths, but testimony is about how we live in response to Christ’s goodness toward us. Our testimony can’t be separated from our appreciation of how good God has been, especially considering how undeserving we are of God’s goodness.

(We invite your comments. Feel free to share this devotion with your friends and invite them to subscribe by forwarding their email address to the Pastor at: fredjeffsmith@cox.net.)