7.  Serve One Another through Accountability:

James 5:16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Healed from addiction. Healed from fear. Healed from depression. Your healing comes from God through your connection to others.  Your accountability does not just keep you from sinning, but it heals you.

You are saved by God through faith. You are healed by God through community.

We often skip the confess your sins to each other part.  And when it comes to the second part, we just highlight the pray part.  We say…Pray and you will be healed.  However, the “confess” AND “to each other” parts are JUST as important.  “Oh I just can’t do that.  It’s too personal. People don’t need in my business.” “OK, don’t get healed.”  “Ok, keep sinning.”

Hebrews 3:13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

Admit to sin and look to another human to help you overcome it.

Voluntarily develop a circle of Christian friends to whom we are regularly accountable for areas of behavior that are especially difficult, or in which self-deception is easy.

WE ARE TO LET OUR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS INTO OUR LIVES DEEPLY ENOUGH TO SEE OUR WEAKNESSES AND HOLD US RESPONSIBLE TO GROW INTO CHRIST’S LIKENESS.

The best way for accountability to work is for you to be around people enough for them to pick up on the difference.  If you only have a meeting once a month where you are supposed to confess your sins to a person and you don’t even know them.  It is much more likely for you to hide.  However, if you are in close proximity with someone you are able to say…something isn’t right with you.

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