October 6, 2024 -- Proverbs 17:5-6, 17 -- Accountability -- defeater of sin and strength of the believer

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Better is open rebuke
    than hidden love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
    profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
17 Iron sharpens iron,
    and one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 17:5-6, 17 ESV

Okay, you’ve admitted you are powerless to fight your own addiction. You realizing it is controlling your life. You’ve been fighting against it. Ignoring it. Submitted to it. Hated yourself. Tried all things imaginable. Now, having turned to God, find one of His people, a Christian whose walk you admire, and ask for help. Look for an accountability partner. 

The Canadian Bible Society has the Overcomer’s material. Day 8 offers these criteria for such an accountability person:

  • Someone who is farther along the recovery journey than you are

  • who is of the same gender

  • is supportive of your goals

  • and someone you respect

  • who is a follower of Jesus (page 19, Overcomers)

Look at Proverbs. You must respect this person because he will rebuke you for wrong-doing. You will be bringing to light, confessing, things you have avoided. Now you are opening yourself up to someone who can discern the lies, the deceptions and misdirection you use in order to stay bound up in your addiction. You must respect him enough to do these things with integrity.

This friend will bear wounds from your defensiveness and fighting against his efforts to help you. These will be faithful wounds. The wounds of Jesus—against Whom all your sin is focused. Your accountability partner is willing to put up with bad behavior, angry words all the while standing firm in Jesus's truth and leading you back to Him. An enemy is someone who speaks kindly to you and allows you to wallow in the same sins.

An accountability partner is hard like iron. He will not put up with excuses. He will call you out on your sin. He knows the value of being a follower of Jesus who denies his own desires and wants and will put down temptations in order to keep his allegiance to the King of glory. He has to be like iron, because anything softer will allow you to secretly go back to sin.

Get to church. Let the Word of God convict you of your sin. Let the preaching encourage you of your need for Jesus. Allow the Spirit of God to bring you to the company of fellow Christians who with you desire to know the saving grace of Jesus which matches His omnipotence to your weakness.

Father in heaven thank You for Jesus, the chain-breaker, the reconciler between You and Your people. By the powerful presence of Your Spirit in me, break the strongholds of sin, of spiritual blindness, of self-satisfaction so that wholly open to You I will be made holy. Spirit of the Living God, lead me to the right person who will be for me a strong representative of Jesus, iron who sharpens me in His holy ways. Amen.

https://youtu.be/j4wYkS8Z3Io?si=OLFdVxuRv6bVeA_t “Truth be Told”

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