Friday Fight 202: The Accountability Shift

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF202.

How often have we endured something painful or experienced failure and immediately blamed someone else? Maybe it was a mistake at work, a poor grade on a required test, or even a relationship that did not work out as we had hoped. As a culture, are we so accustomed to blaming others for the mishaps and discomforts in our lives that we fail to ever see our lack of accountability? What happens to our spiritual lives when we fail to own something we have done and instead shift to an accusatory posture and blame someone else?

The Accountability Shift:

Our sisterhood group at River Church is reading the book of James and gathering to discuss each verse of the five chapters. The first chapter led me to reflect on areas of my life and how I positioned my mindset during various trials. Through prayer, a loving correction from the Holy Spirit revealed specific times when accountability should have been mine, but the blame was placed elsewhere. James 1:2 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” I can honestly say that my emotions during many of these trials were far from being joyful. If each trial is supposed to reveal something to us or strengthen us in some way, my reflection was painfully apparent that whenever I blamed others, I missed the opportunity to learn again and again.

If we look at every trial as an opportunity to learn and grow while harboring the emotion of joy, what can we learn about ourselves and our relationship with God from past trials? This is not an easy process, but the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will graciously reveal the areas we need to work on through prayer. Not all trials need to be someone’s fault; things happen in and out of our control. However, our perspective plays a huge part in our reaction, our perseverance, and, of course, the ultimate lesson and strength we receive in going to God through each one. Suppose we are experiencing something in a friendship where our intentions are questioned. We can either speak with humility and own up to our mistakes, or we can blame others, which places us in an accusatory posture. When we do this, it is much harder to see this as an opportunity to learn and grow because our mindset is manipulated by guilt and judgment in projecting our mistakes onto others. There is absolutely no joy found in this scenario.

Taking accountability for our actions in unfavorable situations is not a natural human trait. But looking at our need to accuse others, even while smiling, can reveal a spiritual posture that needs adjusting. Set time aside this week to pray about personal reactions to past trials and what emotion may have replaced joy. Prayer allows us to create space for introspection, to recognize where we may have fallen short, and to ask for God’s guidance in addressing those areas. When we can humble ourselves and acknowledge our part in a situation, it opens the door to healing, forgiveness, and joy.

Be encouraged by this invitation to reflect. As we focus on our personal responsibility and spiritual stance of humility and repentance, we open ourselves to true peace amidst trials. It’s a reminder that we’re not called to be perfect but to continually seek alignment with God’s will.

Photo Credit: Sherri Gagnon

Pastor Shannon

River Church