Who Do You Blame?

When something outside of your control happens; and it is real bad - causing severe emotional or physical pain - who do you blame? Is it God’s fault? Is it the Devil attacking you? Karma? Bad Luck? Or maybe it’s the mother-in-law? If one is going to engage in Victorious Living (my newest sermon series), the blame game needs to be evaluated. It is easy and frequently convenient, and sometimes even necessary to assign blame, but most often it is the path of the irresponsible. God wants us to be living victoriously, but to do so we have to own what is ours, accept the part we played in the situation, and allow the situation to teach us.

There are some things we can control, other things not so much. What we can control is our attitude, our work ethic, our lifestyle habits, and the people we hang out with. If you have an accident this winter, some may say the devil is trying to wipe you out, others might say, it was the lack of road maintenance, others might suggest God is punishing you, but it just might be due to the poor tires you have on your vehicle. Or you were driving too fast for the road conditions, or (may it never be) a result of distracted driving. A lot of “bad things” happening can be simply a lack of planning, stinky attitudes, and/or bad habits. We have a choice; we can let life manage us or we can manage life. Life will happen whether we are actively engaged or just letting it carry us along. Only dead fish float down stream. It takes engagement and effort to swim up stream, but it is only way to get to the spawning grounds were we can produce the fruit of life. The truth is, sometimes God allows things to happen that are not pleasant, but they are necessary. We can grow from them and become better people if we allow our difficulties to teach us. Sometimes spiritual forces of darkness come against us, but again we can be victorious and experience higher levels of maturity as we exercise our spiritual rights as member of God’s family. (See Ephesians 6:10-18) Sometimes our own actions bring hardship upon us.This is how wisdom and experience is gained, so we move on - learning from our mistakes. And finally, sometimes people are just unkind, inconsiderate, and do crazy things that can result in undeserved suffering to innocent bystanders. Unfair? Maybe?  We can’t control everything, but we can control our approach to life. And here is the promise. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) All things, is exactly that - all things. So here’s to victorious living; if we can only believe that God is working it out for our good.

This Sunday I will be sharing a section on the Devil and the scope of his limited power in our Victorious Living series. I will give clear and helpful tips on how to be on the path of Victorious Living.