Then the man said, "The woman who You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" - Genesis 3:12
Adam and Eve did everything they could to avoid taking responsibility for their sin. Adam blamed his wife: "She have me of the tree." He even pointed an accusing finger at God, saying it was "the woman, whom YOU gave me." Eve blamed the serpent saying: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." God ignored their excuses and announced the judgement they would face as consequences for their disobedience.
One of the issues of mankind is that we refuse to take responsibility for our actions. We want to blame others for our problems: our parents did not raise us well (can't see how that could be used - esp, with my kids), our friends let us down; our pastor was not a good enough preacher; our children are rebellious (not true either in my case - they are angels); our employer is not sensitive enough; our spouse is not understanding (again not here!); there is not enough time in the day, you get the point, the excuses are plentiful and easy. Yet forgiveness and restoration cannot happen until we accept full responsibility for our actions.
An obvious indication that we have not genuinely repented is that we make excuses for our sinful behavior. Nowhere in the Scripture does God excuse one person's sin because of someone else's actions. If we make a habit of blaming others for our failures, we will not reach a point of honest repentance. God will hold us accountable for our own actions, not others (2 Cor. 5;10). Strive always to acknowledge and take responsibility for your own sins. It will free you to receive God's forgiveness and to press on to spiritual maturity.
This BLOG is not intended to make you feel sad about past sins, it is actually to allow you to start to understand how to FREE yourself from them. Take responsibility and take them to God. He will forgive and more importantly forget - his GRACE is amazing.
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5 comments:
It's very easy to blame others. I chuckled as a read this, because I blamed the world for my sins in my last comment. I guess I need to learn to take responsiblity for my own actions!
Don't be so hard on yourself. How is everyone doing today?
Thanks for sharing this with me - while I do check in on your blog from time to time, I don't do it with any regularity, so was glad to get your message this morning. Your thoughts today come at a perfet time as we have been discussing this very thing at church the past few weeks with a focus on how to make a change in our lives when we know that is what we really have to do. When we get stuck in sin, it becomes so hard to do. As you so clearly state, it's easier to blame everyone else (I'm good at it)! Romans 7:7-25 talks about this struggle that we have with sin. So how do we make the change? We have to first take responsibility and repent. But that won't get us out of the hole. We need to get help from someone who can hold us accountable. And we have to get help by going to the only one who can forgive and who can really change us.
What a great lesson! Thanks for sharing. ... Juliann (my sister) told me about your blog. I'm over at www.gettingdownwithjesus.blogspot.com... Also, I wanted to encourage you to consider joining the High Calling Blogs network. It's a great community of faith-based bloggers. Click on the link from my site, if you're interested. Happy blogging!
God does have compassion on us as we go through each day of our lives going against His will. I know he can cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).
God changes our hearts for true repentance. Lord create a pure heart in me!
Thanks for sharing, Larry.
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