The Blame Game

"The woman you put... with me...gave me... the fruit, and I ate it." Genesis 3:12-13 (CEV)

A man smokes 3 packs of cigarettes a day for 40 years, dies of lung cancer, and his family sues the tobacco company. A woman crashes while driving drunk, then blames the bartender. Your kids are out of control so you blame violence on TV, lack of discipline in school or the influence of their friends.

Excuses - we've got hundreds of them! Our parents failed us...our friends let us down...somebody gave us bad advice...our mate doesn't understand us. The blame game isn't new; we've been playing it since the dawn of creation. In Genesis the first couple offered God every excuse in the book to avoid responsibility for their actions. Adam actually blamed God by saying, "It was the woman you put...with me." And Eve was no better, she said, "The snake tricked me."

Solomon says, "The wise are glad to be instructed...fools fall flat on their faces" (Pr 10:8 NLT), because the ability to accept responsibility is the measure of your character and maturity. But more importantly, God can't forgive and restore you till you acknowledge and turn away from your sin. Nowhere in Scripture does He ever excuse your sin because of somebody else's behavior. In fact, when you make a habit of blaming the other guy you'll never reach the place of honest repentance.

The Bible says we'll all "appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions" (2Co 5:10 TM).

Acknowledging your sins and shortcomings here and now frees you to receive God's forgiveness and move on to maturity.