There seems to be a heavy price to pay for being unfaithful, unreliable, untrustworthy, and unprepared.  Perhaps that seems harsh.  And yet, there is a responsibility that comes with accepting the role of a servant.  Willful disobedience is worse than committing a sin and being unaware of it.  One speaks of arrogance.  The other speaks of ignorance.  I would imagine that to know the truth and yet deny the truth is the equivalent of calling God a lie.  And it’s much more difficult to avoid accountable living when we know what’s required and simply choose not to do it.

         We live knowing the dangers of a life lived in sin.  We try to avoid the traps and snares that cause us to be punished.  And if we’re honest, sometimes the punishment comes in the commission of the sin itself.  We go through the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual beating that comes from knowing we went against God.  And dependent upon the violation of God’s grace, there may be a civil and social price to pay for our indiscretion.  It may feel as though we’re struck with many blows or few blows, but the punishment will be there.

         What God has entrusted us with is life — our life and the life of the Spirit within us.  If we fail to live up to the potential of God within us, then perhaps there is no way to faithfully live accountably as a servant of God.  And perhaps the more that is demanded of us is evidence of our faithfulness.  We will all be held accountable though — those that know better and those that don’t.

• What emotions enter your mind and spirit when you understand that punishment awaits those unfaithful servants?
• What fears or anxieties do you have about being held accountable?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and eternal God, lead me in the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Enable me to be counted as a faithful servant whose life and living are deemed accountable.

         Accountable living is easy on paper.  Ideas and thoughts, plans and schemes all see to work well as long as they’re written down.  But it not the writing down of our thoughts, ideas, plans, schemes, nor even our dreams.  It’s living them into reality that makes being a faithful servant difficult.  Nevertheless, it’s easier to know what being a faithful servant is if the recipe is known.  It additionally makes it easier to live up to our potential once we’ve been given the green light to go for it.  Loving one another, outdoing one another in showing honor, avoiding laziness in our passion for doing our work — all of these edicts enable and empower us to seek the faithfulness that accountable living calls for.

         In addition, life lessons learned from rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation, and constant in prayer enable us to keep in touch with the one who has entrusted us with the desire to be faithful servants.  Is there a guarantee of success?  Well, there are no guarantees in life.  But there is a much stronger possibility that we will be able to engage in accountable living — living that will be pleasing to our God.  After all, we’re all differently abled.  God only wants us to be as faithful as we can be so that our lives will count for something when the accounting is done.

• What plans do you follow to ensure your faithfulness as a servant that hold you accountable?
• What are your greatest challenges in living so that you will be found accountable?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to live as a faithful servant to You. Empower me to live responsibly to Your will so that my living will allow me to be found accountable.

         Responsibility demands a certain amount of readiness in the event of an emergency.  Sometimes it’s too late to improvise, especially when we’ve been forewarned to be prepared.  And a large part of being found accountable is remaining faithful and responsible for that which we are called to do.  I can remember as a child being told by my mother to have the dishes washed up before she got home from work.  Her coming home seemed a long way off until I saw her walking down the street toward the house.  I hadn’t done taken care of the responsibility I had been charged, because it seemed like such a long time before she would get home, and it was more fun playing than it was doing housework.  What was not fun was being held accountable for that which I hadn’t done, even though I knew I should have done it.

         I imagine we all suffer some anxiety when we are tasked with a responsibility but find ourselves coming up short because we failed to do what was asked of us.  And I don’t imagine it’s any different for us when we consider what it is to be a faithful servant to our heavenly Father, only to have failed to be responsible in doing what is asked of us.  Our faithfulness will fare much better when we are called to give an account for the task we’ve been entrusted to perform if we’ve been faithful.  Being a faithful servant is what accountable living is all about.

• How would you rate yourself as a faithful servant if you failed in your responsibility to do what was asked of you?
• What needs to happen within our lives to ensure that we are living accountably?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, increase my spirit of faithfulness as Your servant that I might always be found living accountably before You.