Have you ever blamed someone else for something that you did in order to cover up your image?
Haven’t we all!
Children have blamed their siblings for the mistakes they’ve made instead of taking ownership and responsibility of their own choices. Spouses have blamed one another for their failing marriage instead of taking ownership of their thoughts, words, and actions as a contribution to the condition of the marriage.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, humanity has chosen to blame one another instead of looking into the mirror and taking responsibility for their actions.
When Adam and Eve chose to sin against God, they were given the opportunity to take ownership of their sin, but they did not. God approached them and asked in Genesis 3:11, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Adam's response was, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
When God asked Eve, she said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the devil. The blame game was passed from generation to generation.
I commonly hear and have even falsely said myself to another person, “You made me do this.” When in reality, no one can take your power of choice away from you.
People blame the government, the wealthy, the poor, their ex’s, their parents, their bosses, their jobs, their families, their spouses, and their genetics. There is immense danger in playing the blame game, it breeds a cancerous mentality that I call ‘victim mentality.’
The ‘victim mentality’ is a lie that many have believed causing them to think that others are in control of their past, present, and future spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, financial and professional well-being.
Participating in this game will hinder you from fulfilling your God-given destiny to live as a victor because you’ve chosen to embrace the mentality of a victim.
Unfortunately, too many people are following the footsteps of their ancestor Eve, by blaming the devil for their problems. Instead, they should look into the mirror and take responsibility for the wrong choices they have made and repent (turn away).
Now, I am not saying that the devil has retired from the stealing, killing, and destroying business because he hasn’t. But there is also danger in ALWAYS blaming the devil for every bad thing that happens.
Have you ever considered that you chose the bad thing and you are now reaping what you have sown?
Not that God needs someone to defend Him, but in my perspective, even God gets blamed for things that He isn’t responsible for. Although He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present, He cannot override humanity’s FREE WILL CHOICE.
God instructs us with His all-knowing wisdom in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, “ See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
God clearly instructs us to choose life because He wants us to experience the blessings, prosperity, and increase that comes from HIM as a by-product of doing so. He also warns us to NOT choose sin or death because it brings destruction.
That would be like a father saying to his son, “Now son, apply to jobs and earn a living for your life, for if you do so, you will be financially blessed.” But instead, the son observes that banks have a lot of money and chooses to rob a bank to become ‘financially blessed.’ By choosing to rob the bank (sin and death), the son experiences destructive consequences; such as decades of prison-time, which in turn, rob him of his God-given life and destiny to prosper and be blessed.
Now, this son could play the blame game to try and justify his wrong choice by saying, “the economy has no good jobs to offer me, my dad never taught me how to make a living, etc.” but that would not excuse him from his God-given responsibility to still choose life.
He sowed robbing and reaped robbing. If this principle of sowing and reaping works for the destructive side, it also works for the blessing side when we are obedient to God's word and choose life.
The Bible records an interaction between Jesus and a man in John 5 where He commissions the man to take responsibility and ownership of his life. The setting of John 5 is the Pool of Bethesda where many handicap, blind, and lame people would settle in hopes to be healed. They embraced an ancient myth about the waters of the Pool of Bethesda being full of ‘healing’ when they rippled. The myth said that if the water rippled it was because an angel came down to provide the first person that got into the water with physical ‘healing’.
Thus, hundreds of the diseased lived near the Pool of Bethesda in hopes of one day seeing the ripples and being the first to enter the pool to receive their healing.
John 5:5-8 records Jesus’ interaction with one of those diseased, “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Notice, the man adopts a victim mentality and blames others for his lack of healing and the remaining diseased condition that he is in. I can hear the defeat in this man’s voice as I read his response to Jesus.
Jesus responds uniquely to this man’s defeat in Luke 5:9, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” He does not enable this man’s victim mentality. He commissions him to take responsibility for his health, thoughts, and life by ‘get up, pick up your mat, and walk.’
Jesus is saying here:
1. Get up – Change your thinking
2. Pick up your mat – Act as a victor and not a victim
3. Walk – progress into your future as a brand-new person
How do we ‘get up, pick up our mat, and walk?’
The same way that this man did, by choosing life.
How did this man choose life?
By listening to, believing in, and acting on the Word of God.
Jesus is the Word of God, as John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
When Jesus spoke to the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk,” those words carried within them all the grace, power, and ability that the man needed to change his thinking, act as a victor and not a victim, physically stand up and progress into his future as a brand-new healed person.
You can choose life by hearing, reading, believing, and acting on the Word of God as well as the man at the Pool of Bethesda and be saved, healed, and set free just like he was! This man experienced the blessings, prosperity, and increase that CHOOSING LIFE brings!
But it will require you to stop blaming others for your current emotional, physical, financial, spiritual, and professional condition. Notice how the blame game ended for the man at the pool when He focused on the words of Jesus.
When you choose to focus on the Word of God instead of blaming others, you position yourself to reap the blessings, prosperity, and increase of God upon every area of your life!
Your responsibility is to believe and God’s responsibility is to bless. And when you hear, believe, and act in obedience to God's Word by choosing life, you will reap your God-given destiny, blessings, prosperity, and increase to your spirit, soul, and body!
Stop playing the blame game and take a good look in the mirror today and do as Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”