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Making change pays: but how do I do it?

You are dissatisfied with life or with yourself. It may be that few extra pounds. It may be your lifestyle. You may even have an addiction that is destroying your life and those around you. “It is time”, you think to yourself, “to effect a change”. But here we are already well into the new year and in the business of our daily lives we have given up on the resolutions we made so hopefully a short while ago. What we fail to realize is that the decision to change is only the beginning.

Change is a process and if we really want to effect a change in our lives we must set up “check points” upon the road to our goal. In other words, we must become accountable. Accountability takes three forms: accepting our own accountability, accountability to others, and accountability to God. 

We can not implement effective change if we do not make ourselves accountable and accept responsibility for our own actions. In the earliest story of human frailty, when God approached Adam in the garden and asked, “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”  The immediate response was, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.” Subsequently, when God approached Eve, she replied with a similar response, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”(Genesis 3:11). The blame game is easy to play but prevents us from ever getting past the first check point because our behaviour is always someone else’s fault which removes it out of our control. It takes courage to say, “I am responsible for my own choices and responses no matter what others do now or did in the past”. When we do make ourselves accountable we give ourselves hope because we have taken the control of our actions back into our own hands. 

After we make ourselves accountable, the next step requires that we make ourselves accountable to others. We may make ourselves accountable to our weight loss leader, counselor, pastor, boss, parent, spouse or a respected friend depending on the aspect of our life that we are trying to change. Accountability to others is a binding relationship from which strength is gained to deal with our human struggles. The choice to make ourselves accountable requires transparency and humility. Remember, people who make excuses seldom change because the excuses themselves are roadblocks to performance. In an age of fallen heroes and dishonest leaders, accountability needs to be a virtue we gladly chose. If a person is too big to be accountable then they are too little to lead…. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Even Timothy was accountable to the Apostle Paul who refered to him as “my own son in the faith,” (1Timothy 1:2).Choosing someone to be accountable to, is one of the surest steps to effecting a change in our lives. 

Ultimately, accountability to God is the final step in our journey to change. God’s loving power and intervention can give us the strength to overcome when nothing else will, however, this cannot happen unless we make ourselves answerable to God. Regular and consistent conversations with God (they call it prayer) and the study of God’s precepts (they call it God’s Word) give us encouragement and the ability to see through the self-deceptions and justifications that keep us from success. A young man who had made himself accountable to his pastor, came to him and told him that he had decided to give up trying to effect the changes needed in his life… he was quitting.

The minister reminded the young man that he was also accountable to God for his decision and that it was to him he needed to say good-bye as well. They young man obeyed and went to say good-bye to God. After some time the young man returned with tearstained eyes and said, “I couldn’t tell him good-bye”. His accountability saved him.  (Passing the Mantle:53) 

Effecting a change in our lives is never an easy process, but it can be done. Accountability can give us strength far beyond our natural man and keep us focused on our final goal. Accountability in relationships, finances, work ethics, prayer, honesty and integrity will ensure a significant force has been released in your life that will keep you on the right track. When we are down, accountability ensures that our weakness, our enemy, doesn’t keep us down: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.” (Micah 7:8)

Pastor T. Zotzman
The Voice of Pentecost Church
#37-4th Avenue South
Williams Lake, B.C.
(250) 392-1191