Bad choices and the blame game

The one thing that separated man above the rest of creation was God gave man a free will and the ability to choose to Love God and obey His Word.  The enemy started questioning God’s Word and convinced them that God was holding out on them.   

He used the one one tree that God told them not to eat of and got them to take their eyes off of the vast number of trees he gave them to eat from.  He said God just doesn’t want you to be like Him.  He is holding you back.  So they took matters in their own hands and violated the one rule and ate from the tree. They decided that maybe they didn’t really need God - Satan convinced them that they could be just like Him. 

They found out differently.  Adam and Eve made a bad choice.  They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and saw what it was like to be without God’s covering and blessing…they were naked and ashamed.

I wonder how many people reading this have found themselves “naked” (broke, discouraged, in debt, etc.) because of bad choices?  How many people are blaming their circumstances or others for their problems?

You know - the “blame game” started back in the garden.  Adam and Eve were hiding from God, just like many of us are hiding from God and life.  We have made some wrong choices and found ourselves in the same place - naked, broke, and ashamed.

God asked Adam where are you?  It wasn’t that He didn’t know where they were hiding…he was asking them essentially - “what were you thinking?”  Where are you in you heart and thoughts? Then Eve blamed the devil and and Adam blamed Eve and God for giving her to him. 

They didn’t take ownership for their bad choices.  This is one thing that has kept us from success even today.  Not taking responsibility for our own choices and always blaming others.  “I was born in the wrong neighborhood, the wrong city, the wrong ethnicity, I went to the wrong school, I was mistreated, I was raised in a poor family, etc”.  Those are excuses that hold us back.  God created us in His image and told us to have dominion, to take charge.  There are thousands of success stories where people have overcome their circumstances to become some of the most prosperous and influential people in history.  When we put God in our decisions and follow His direction, His blessings and prosperity will follow.

To be continued…