“Our Daily Bread” http://odb.org/
The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie
“The Blame Game”
Re-posted from 9/09/2013 by bruce r. mills
Luke 23:34… Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (NKJV)
The opening scripture has Jesus speaking, as He hangs on the cross at Calvary near the end of His mortal life… Jesus tells His Father to forgive the elders, scribes, Pharisees, and the rest of the Jews and others who wanted to see Jesus suffer and die on the cross…
I don’t know of any better example for not holding a grudge, or for not blaming those who were crucifying Jesus, than Jesus’ testimony showing forgiveness to all of His enemies, right before His death on the cross…
There is absolutely, positively no excuse or reason a Christian can provide, that the Lord would find acceptable, after they blame someone or something else to cover their sins…
This “blame game” started way back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam blamed his sin of eating the forbidden apple on Eve…and Eve blamed the serpent (Satan) for deceiving her into eating from the only tree in the Garden of Eden (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) that God strictly forbid them from touching…Genesis 2:16-17…
God didn’t accept Adam and Eve’s use of blaming another back then…and God won’t accept our use of blame now, as we try to shift responsibility for our actions upon someone or something else to cover our sins…
Christians are responsible for their actions at all times… Christians are given free will by God, but their response to anyone or any adverse situation that comes before them, should always be made in a godly manner… Are we successful at this ?? Heck no!! It is never easy to show love and forgiveness as a response to anger, or resentment, or bitterness, or persecution towards us…
But Jesus tells His children this, in…Matthew 5:44… “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” (NKJV)
I believe every true Christian should always want to obey Jesus’ commands…but we are incapable in our own strength to be able to please the Lord in difficult times… This is why God gave His children the Holy Spirit, to live with-in the Christian as their life long Helper…John 14:26… After salvation, if the Christian remains filled with the Holy Spirit (is walking in the Spirit), they will have a good chance of repelling the temptations to sin…Galatians 5:16…
But a Christian cannot remain walking in the Spirit, and respond to any atrocity that comes before them with anything but love… This power to overcome evil with good is only possible, when the Holy Spirit has total control of the Christian’s life… This total submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit is what produces the fruit of the Spirit that the Apostle Paul teaches us about, in…
Galatians 5:22-23… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (NKJV)
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