14But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
Disobedience always leaves a trail. Saul and his army were supposed to kill every living thing among the Amalekites, but they didn’t. The Lord wanted simple obedience, and Saul made it complicated. He made it so that he would get the glory for the defeat. He wanted people to look up to him, rather than seeing the LORD as the source of the victory. Anytime we sin there will be telltale signs of that disobedience. For Saul it was the noise of the animals he had spared. We are pretty good at spotting these kinds of things in other people. We can see the anger in our spouse and know it points to rebellion, but we don’t see anger as a problem in us. We can justify our anger, so we dismiss the ‘noise’ it makes in our lives. So what is the noise made by your disobedience? Maybe you could ask those around you to be honest with you, letting them be an extra set of eyes and ears. That is what accountability is about.
The Arnold Journey 