The Greatest Relationship

If someone sins against another person, God can mediate for the guilty party. But if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede?” But Eli’s sons wouldn’t listen to their father, for the LORD was already planning to put them to death.

1 Samuel 2:25 NLT

It all comes down to a degree of personal accountability. You might be asking, “What is ‘it’? And for that matter, what is ‘it all’?” Let me tell you. IT is your personal responsibility for your actions, for the words you speak, for things you DON’T do but know you should, for your offenses against yourself, others, and to God.

Most of the time people have no clue if you’ve done something wrong. We’re blind. We want to see the world as good and the people we know as better than good. We don’t want to know that you’re struggling. We don’t want to know that you have weaknesses. We want to be encouraged by stories of how good your life is. Nobody can read your thoughts. I have yet to meet a person that can intuitively know your motives. We hope for the best. We pray for the best.

This is why accountability can be so tough to find. You reach out to a close friend, share a goal, ask for encouraging texts, tweets, wall posts, and FOR A TIME it happens. But what happens? What was daily becomes occasional. What was encouraging becomes snide. What was accountability becomes enabling.

We get busy. We allow for so many others to sneak in and at least appear more important.

Aren’t you glad to know that God can intercede on your behalf? In those moments that you have let someone down, during those times when you struggled to focus on anyone but yourself, God was there FOR them. God steps in as your mediator.

God reconciles.

But what happens when we offend God? What happens when we sin against the Creator the universe? Who intercedes then? Who mediates that one? Eli’s sons had no hope, what about me?

Here’s the scoop: roughly 2,000 years ago a dude named Jesus did something OUTRAGEOUS, something CRAZY, something RIDICULOUS—he died on the cross in my place. He interceded and continues to intercede on my behalf. He is my mediator. He is your mediator (1 Timothy 2:5).

If you don’t know him, get a clue, Jesus is where it’s at.

So, people might not know what’s going on in your life, most likely because you haven’t enough courage or wisdom to open up, someone does know and that someone is crazy IN LOVE with you and wants to intercede on your behalf.

Personal accountability. It’s entirely up to you. You must choose. You must decide. You must take that first step and each subsequent one that follows. Reach out. Speak up.