TribesSample

ACCOUNTABILITY DEFEATS DARKNESS

Universally, mankind does not love the dark. Almost every kid goes through a phase where they need nightlights, or maybe the first time you ever camped outdoors you freaked out when you saw how dark it gets once the flashlights go off…even in adulthood, we don’t love being in the dark. The fear of what could be out there, the mysterious bumps in the night – we are not designed to be nocturnal creatures.

Spiritually speaking, though, the darkness still holds danger. You see, sin loves to hide in darkness because that is where its power comes from. As long as a struggle or a habit is concealed in darkness, it can continue to grow. As long as you can stay convinced that your particular issue is so shameful that you could never tell anyone about it, you’ll be fully controlled by it.

Maybe you’ve been there before…maybe you’re there right now. Believe me, I get it…I get that the little voice in your head screams that you could never ever tell anyone what’s really going on. What will people think? What if you’re judged? My life will be over! But that is just sin hollering in your ear for its own self-preservation. Because sin knows that if you brought that issue out into the light – if you told somebody you trusted about it – it would lose its power in an instant! Once that stuff isn’t a secret anymore, it’s amazing how the power it once held over you vanishes. As the Apostle James puts it, when we confess our sins we find healing. 

If you’ve been around church for a while, you’ve probably heard something about “accountability” or having an “accountability partner.” It doesn’t matter what you call it, but we ALL need people in our lives that are checking in on us. A huge part of being in a tribe is having people close to you, who know what’s really going on in your life and can ask you tough questions. It’s not about judging you or making you feel bad for what you did…it’s about keeping those hidden parts of your life out in the light so they can’t gain control of you in the darkness. 

Read the following passages, and then spend a few moments in prayer asking God to bring to your mind someone in your life that you could open up to. Then, have the courage to reach out to them today and bring an end to the power that sin has held over you.