There's a Thing Called Personal Responsibility

 This morning I met someone at the motel as I was setting up for church who wanted to know what I was doing. I told them about the church plant and that we had our worship service there every Sunday. She was a bit crude and told me that she chose not to worship God anymore because He had let her down so many times that she had just decided she was better off without God. She did not deny Him, just said she did not need Him. I pushed back just a bit and she explained several things that had happened in her life which led her to the conclusion that God had let her down and failed her. I won't go into her personal details, but suffice it to say that in all of the situations she gave, it really boiled down to the fact that she was being disobedient to God's Word and living in a manner that was self-centered and sinful. I pointed this out to her and asked her how she felt it was God's fault when in each case she had made wrong choices and did things that violated the scripture and were what most anyone would call "sinful." She said, "Well, why didn't God stop me from doing it? He's God isn't He?" She went on to blame God for the consequences, the arrests, the divorce, and the financial problems that came about because of her actions. She absolutely could not see that she was to blame and rejected the notion that God loved her enough to allow her to make her own decisions. I explained to her that every decision that we make will result in a consequence, either good or bad. She said, "that's not fair! I trusted God to keep me out of those messes and He let me down!" I told her that the only one who let her down was herself. She got very angry and left in a huff, but what I encountered with this woman is a common thing in the days we are living in. No one wants to accept responsibility for their choices and or actions. It's always someone else's fault and they are the victim. That's what's been shoved down our throats and now that lack of personal responsibility has become an excuse to blame God for the mess their lives are in. But the bottom line is that each of us will give an account for our own lives and choices. The blame game is not going to work when we stand before the Lord on that fearful day.