“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ And He (God) said ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’ The man answered, ‘The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate it” (Genesis 3: 8-13).
Blame from the beginning: Blame is part of mankind’s fall from grace. Instead of taking ownership for what they had done, Adam and Eve tried to shift the responsibility for what they had done, away from themselves. Trying to shift blame does not make us any less accountable. Blame is a human response, but death is human too and the Bible warns us when we try to explain our sin away, we will die. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). Sin kills and blame gives birth to sin. Blame continues its purpose to keep sin alive to prevent our spiritual growth and maturity. Blame keeps us from the full life that God has planned for each of us.
Getting to the root of motivation of our behavior: Often enough, we try to explain away our behavior for what did or didn’t happen during the growing up years and other past experiences. Others often say things like “I do that because my parents did this or that.” Getting to the roots of the motivations of our behavior and why we blame is very important. It helps to clarify the difference of being a victim and having a victim mentality. Many motivations or driving forces are not our fault: but our behavior ultimately becomes our adult responsibility over time. If a person had been treated poorly by another growing up, and that person now resists and hates all authority, the offense or abuse would explain part of the motivation behind the behavior. But having that background does not explain why he or she chooses to deal with the hurt in destructive manner. The only thing that can explain the motivation of the behavior is a fallen nature.
As we pursue spiritual growth, we submit the hurt and anger to the healing process and work it out without return evil for evil: “Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody"(Romans 12:17). “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). “Working it out” includes seeking healing for the hurt, getting resolution and forgiveness for the anger, and seeking reconciliation with those whom have hurt you as much as possible: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18). In dealing with the hurts, issues, difficulties, failures, loss, and other motivations of destructive behavior, we have to remember that there is a difference between what happened to us and the choice we have of how to respond and deal with it.
How has playing the blame game stunted your growth? How has the blame game prevented you from hearing the Holy Spirit?
No comments:
Post a Comment