Tag Archives: Adam

Feb 15

The Blame Game

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I read a quote by Perry Noble the other day that caused me to stop and spend some time reflecting on it. The quote was, “The person who always has to blame is always lame.”  This got me to thinking; am I a person who spends a lot of my energy and time blaming others for my actions, my mistakes, my shortcomings, etc.?

Many of us today seem somewhat incapable of taking the blame for our mistakes and failures in life. Instead we want to look at the people around us and pass it off on them. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. The blame game has been going on since the beginning of time. Do you remember the account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3)? After they both had disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden fruit, neither one of them was willing to take responsibility for their sin. In fact, when God asked Adam if he’d eaten of the tree which he was commanded not to eat, Adam immediately blamed his disobedience on Eve: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). As if that weren’t bad enough, Adam seemed to push the blame even further away from himself when he said: “The woman whom you gave to be with me.” Not only is Adam blaming Eve for his actions, but it appears he had the audacity to blame God. Are you kidding? Really Adam?

As for Eve, she didn’t do any better when she had the opportunity to take responsibility for her actions. When God asked her what she had done, she said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (13).  Eve followed in the steps of Adam and placed the blame on the serpent. Here we have two people who were clearly guilty of disobeying God and neither one wanted to take responsibility for their disobedience. Instead, they took the easy way out and placed the blame on someone else.

Friends, that’s just lame! If we are guilty (and we usually are) we need to take responsibility for what has happened. Paul wrote, “For each one will bear his own load” (Gal. 6:5). According to scripture each one of us is responsible before God for our actions, mistakes, struggles, etc. We better accept the blame and strive to make it right because we will eventually have to answer for it (Rom. 14:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). Don’t be lame, accept the blame and make things right!

Here are a few things to do when you are to blame (which is all the time) for your actions and disobedience.

  1. Pray and ask God to forgive you (I Jn. 1:9).
  2. If your actions have caused others pain, apologize to them and make things right (Matt. 5:23-24).
  3. Work on taking responsibility for your actions (Prov. 28:13).

Now that’s Something to Think About!

Prayer: Father, please help me to take responsibility for my actions, my mistakes, my struggles, my problems and every aspect of my life. When I am tempted to blame others for these things, please open my eyes to my personal responsibility. Help me to see that I have no one to blame but myself. Please forgive me for my need to blame others and help me to be more willing to accept responsibility for my actions and seek forgiveness. In Jesus name, Amen.

 

Dec 13

“Oh, No!”

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We have probably all done it at one time or another. You know, something we were told not to do. As a child I can remember doing this on a few occasions. I knew as soon as I committed the forbidden action, I was going to be in trouble. Immediately I would have one of those, “Oh, no!” moments. You know, the moment you realize you did something you were not suppose to do and cry out, “Oh, no!” At that moment I would begin to contemplate the consequences of my actions. I knew I was in trouble for my disobedience.

Imagine how Adam and Eve must have felt. They were living the good life in the Garden of Eden until one day Satan appeared in the form of a serpent and helped change that. After giving in and breaking the one command God had given them, the Bible says, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8). I imagine Adam and Eve hid themselves because they had one of those “Oh, no!” moments. They knew they had disobeyed God.

Adam and Eve found out very quickly the consequences for their BIG mistake. Consider if you will, what they had to endure.

  1. They lost their innocence. The Bible says, “The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7).
  2. For Eve and her descendants, childbirth would be painful (Gen. 3:16). If you have ever been pregnant or have ever spent time around a woman who is, you understand the pain that comes from everything involved in pregnancy (morning sickness, weight of carrying the baby around, actual birth, etc.).
  3. Eve would now be in subjection to her husband, as he is the head of the home (Gen. 3:16).
  4. For Adam, making a living for his family would now be hard work. Moses records, “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread” (Gen. 3:19).
  5. They would now suffer both spiritual and physical death (Gen. 3:19, 24). The spiritual death was their separation from God and communing with Him in the garden. The physical death was that for the first time ever, something God created would die.
  6. They lost the garden. By this point Adam and Eve must have realized they made a BIG mistake because the Bible records, “Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden” (Gen. 3:23).

Satan tricked man on this occasion in the garden, and he continues to trick Christians today. Just like Eve, Satan deceives Christians into believing that sin will bring them great joy and pleasure. He deceives Christians into believing there is nothing wrong with a little sin. His desire is for Christians to see only the fun that comes with sin. Unfortunately, just like with Adam and Eve, sin always results in consequences.

Friends, remember…sin is not all it’s cracked up to be. Sure it looks good, feels good, tastes good and appears to be the unanimous choice of most people in our society today. However, with sin comes consequences, and many times those consequences have a far higher price than we would be willing to pay if we knew about them upfront, before we partook in the sin. Let’s fight to keep from being deceived by sin. We don’t want to have one of those “Oh, no…that was a BIG mistake” kind of moments when we are trying to serve God.

Now that’s Something to Think About!