John Wesley on Accountability

Do you have an accountability partner? Someone who you have given permission to ask the hard questions? Do you keep yourself accountable? I think that this process is very important if we are to grow in holiness. Also I have found that it is easier to resist temptation when you know that you are going to have to tell someone what you did. I have two people, well really three, who keep me accountable, and we don't all ask these questions but I think that they are quite valuable. They are from the Holy Club started by John Wesley. They are of course modernized so that they are more readable. I hope that you honestly consider them. Wesley and the two other men in the Holy Club asked themselves these questions every morning.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I rely am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?

21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me?