Christian Devotional – July 23, 2017

Where’s your accountability? Looking at Nehemiah chapter 10, we see through the entire chapter today a long list of names of individuals and then a list of expectations for those individuals. A lot of times we wonder why are names listed in the Bible, especially those really long lists of names. Here I see those names as an opportunity for accountability. Nehemiah knew that these people would have expectations put upon them. If they were truly going to lead the people of Israel, they needed to be the very best at what they did and be obedient to God. One of the easiest ways to ensure that is by listing their names along with the list of actions and duties they are responsible for do others could read and know.

How do we hold ourselves accountable? God desires our obedience, in fact, he demands it. Yet we can say that we will be obedient and then we may or may not follow through with that. Which brings us back to the question, how do we hold ourselves accoutable? Do we list our names in front of other people who know what the expectations should be and then question us as to whether we are meeting those? Today, how are we going to ensure that we are being held accountable to being obedient to the commands of God?