The Blame Game
21/09/07 15:57 Filed in:Weekly
Devotional
It's that time of year again - a time which finds
most Americans in front of their TVs on any given
Sunday afternoon, a time of tailgating and of
smack-talk. That's right, it's football season. Most
of you have had the opportunity at some point in your
life to BE or to witness a hard-core football fan (or
some other hard-core sports fan). These are the
people who watch every game, know every player and
every statistic, and they paint their faces for the
game regardless of whether they are at the stadium or
at home. These fans love their teams and do as much
as they can to support them. However, even these fans
fall prey to the blame game. This is where most
people, even those hard-core fans say "we won" when
their team wins, but "they lost" when their team
loses.
If you think about it though this phenomenon does not stop at sports. We play this game with God too. If things are going well for me and I'm having a spectacular day I all too often forget that God is blessing me and I've done nothing to deserve it. In my human-ness I want to take as much credit for the good things as I can - I want to be recognized even if I had very little to do with something going well. However, when it comes to the bad days I very quickly remember that God is the one in control and ask him repeatedly throughout the day why all of these bad things keep happening to me. I ask him why he is punishing me.
In reality, when the Steelers win, it isn't really because of something I did or didn't do. And when God blesses us and gives us good days it is because he is a gracious God and has shown us mercy by not giving us what we actually deserve. When the bad days happen we need to be confident that God can use them to accomplish his will. We need to be confident that Romans 8:28 is really true, that God will work all things for good in our lives.
Most importantly we need to acknowledge that God is who he says he is and thank him for being who he is no matter what is going on in our lives. We need to stop blaming him and start thanking him because he started a work in us and he will carry it through to completion (Phil. 1:6)
Katie
If you think about it though this phenomenon does not stop at sports. We play this game with God too. If things are going well for me and I'm having a spectacular day I all too often forget that God is blessing me and I've done nothing to deserve it. In my human-ness I want to take as much credit for the good things as I can - I want to be recognized even if I had very little to do with something going well. However, when it comes to the bad days I very quickly remember that God is the one in control and ask him repeatedly throughout the day why all of these bad things keep happening to me. I ask him why he is punishing me.
In reality, when the Steelers win, it isn't really because of something I did or didn't do. And when God blesses us and gives us good days it is because he is a gracious God and has shown us mercy by not giving us what we actually deserve. When the bad days happen we need to be confident that God can use them to accomplish his will. We need to be confident that Romans 8:28 is really true, that God will work all things for good in our lives.
Most importantly we need to acknowledge that God is who he says he is and thank him for being who he is no matter what is going on in our lives. We need to stop blaming him and start thanking him because he started a work in us and he will carry it through to completion (Phil. 1:6)
Katie
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