A person’s own folly leads to their ruin,
yet their heart rages against the LORD.
(Proverbs 19:3)
Oh how many times I have been guilty of this. How many times in the heat of the moment my heart has cried out in anger, "Why did you let this happen to me Lord!? Why didn't you warn me!? Why didn't you remind me!? Why didn't you help me!? How could you do this to me!?" The truth is that almost every time I am actually mad at myself. I know that it was my fault. I know that I made a bad choice. I know that I failed to remember some important detail, yet I want to blame God. This is nothing more than the scene from the garden played out again in our lives. Like Adam and Eve we shift blame from ourselves to someone else, and when no one else is there to take the blame, we shift it onto God.
The truth is...God is not to blame. We are. We are the ones that chose to lie or be lazy or have sex outside of marriage. We were the ones who allowed our arrogant attitudes to drive our friends away. We chose laziness over hard work and yet don't understand why God hasn't given us success like others. We have run after the world's way of living instead of God's way, and the Bible tells us that there are consequences for our decisions. Galatians 6 tells us that we reap what we sow. If we sow to the flesh, we reap a harvest of destruction. In essence this proverb says when the harvest comes in rotten, don't blame God, blame the bad seeds you chose to plant. This is even true of those who have been forgiven of our sin because Jesus' death on the cross has been applied to our lives. Even we still bear consequences for our sin in this life. We will not bear the punishment for those sins eternally, but there are still consequences.
I am not talking about those who are molested or abused, or the child who is born with deformities or those who are stricken down by sheer happenstance. There are some things in this world that happen to us that are not our fault. Yet, even in these circumstances we have no right to "rage against the Lord." As Job said, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" (Job 2:10) It is true that God is in control and that nothing happens unless He, at the very least, allows it to happen. But we still do not have the right to rage against Him. He is God. He cannot nor has He ever sinned. And even these things that happen to us by sheer happenstance are the result of man's sin, not God's. They may not have been caused by our own sin but they were caused by the general problem of sin in the world. Plus, incredibly, God gives us reason to rejoice even in these circumstances for the Bible says that God "works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose."
So let me ask you... What have you been holding against God that you have no right to blame Him for? What have you been blaming on God that you really need take responsibility for yourself? What angry thoughts, words, or actions towards God do you need to repent of today because of these things? May the Lord grant both of us more strength and grace to accept the consequences for our faults without blaming Him.
For further reading...
The truth is...God is not to blame. We are. We are the ones that chose to lie or be lazy or have sex outside of marriage. We were the ones who allowed our arrogant attitudes to drive our friends away. We chose laziness over hard work and yet don't understand why God hasn't given us success like others. We have run after the world's way of living instead of God's way, and the Bible tells us that there are consequences for our decisions. Galatians 6 tells us that we reap what we sow. If we sow to the flesh, we reap a harvest of destruction. In essence this proverb says when the harvest comes in rotten, don't blame God, blame the bad seeds you chose to plant. This is even true of those who have been forgiven of our sin because Jesus' death on the cross has been applied to our lives. Even we still bear consequences for our sin in this life. We will not bear the punishment for those sins eternally, but there are still consequences.
I am not talking about those who are molested or abused, or the child who is born with deformities or those who are stricken down by sheer happenstance. There are some things in this world that happen to us that are not our fault. Yet, even in these circumstances we have no right to "rage against the Lord." As Job said, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" (Job 2:10) It is true that God is in control and that nothing happens unless He, at the very least, allows it to happen. But we still do not have the right to rage against Him. He is God. He cannot nor has He ever sinned. And even these things that happen to us by sheer happenstance are the result of man's sin, not God's. They may not have been caused by our own sin but they were caused by the general problem of sin in the world. Plus, incredibly, God gives us reason to rejoice even in these circumstances for the Bible says that God "works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose."
So let me ask you... What have you been holding against God that you have no right to blame Him for? What have you been blaming on God that you really need take responsibility for yourself? What angry thoughts, words, or actions towards God do you need to repent of today because of these things? May the Lord grant both of us more strength and grace to accept the consequences for our faults without blaming Him.
For further reading...
- Genesis 3 (especially verses 8-13)- Check out how Adam and Eve tried to push blame off themselves and onto someone else.
- Galatians 6:1-7 & Romans 6:23- The Bible clearly teaches that there are consequences for our sin.
- Job 1-2:10- There is no doubt that God could have stopped the trouble that came upon Job, yet Job chooses not to "rage against" Him.
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