"The Blame Game"

Most of us live somewhere between these two famous lines... 

“The thrill of victory” = look what I did

“The agony of defeat” = it’s not my fault

These seem to be the two themes that sum up our culture and how it views itself. I’m responsible for all the good things in my life. Someone else is responsible for all the bad things.. For most of us we are very quick to take credit for things when they go right and just as quick to shift the blame to someone else when they go wrong. We’ve all played it. It’s called the blame game.  As we see in Proverbs the blame game is nothing new.  Goes all the way back to  the garden of Eden where Adam told or (blamed God) for his sin by implying  “the woman you gave me…”  It’s not my fault.  God, its your fault.

“When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.”  Proverbs 19:3 ESV

The fool has said in his heart, “there is no God”, 

The fool refuses to listen to instruction 

The fool chooses to live according to his own ideals and ideas.

The fool is wise in his own eyes…

The fool says in effect, “no one is going to tell me what to do.”   The fool chooses his own path, he will have it no other way. 

One would think that the someone like this would at least be honest enough with himself and others to take the responsibility for his life, for his choices when things go wrong.  But that is not how the heart of man works. 

The same person who refuses to follow God is quick to blame God when things go wrong.  This verse says they don’t just blame Him, their heart rages against Him.  They are furious, they are shaking their fist at God blaming him for all the ruin that has come into their lives.  

“The thrill of victory” = look what I did

“The agony of defeat” = look what God did

What they are saying is they want a God who will bless their ideas, plans and goals but not a God who will tell them how to live.  They want a God who is watching them from a distance.  They want a God who is close enough to bless but far enough away not to be intrusive.    They want a God who will let them make their own choices and when they make a foolish choice or harmful choice, He will come along and override the decision so it works out for them.  They want a God who  cares  enough to solve problems but not one who loves enough to confront them in their sin.  

Unfortunately that God does not exist.  God is not like that.  So consequently when the foolish choices lead to ruin and God does not rush in to fix everything, the fool’s heart rages against the LORD.  Instead of his folly driving him to repentance it drives him to rage.  Instead of a heart broken by it’s sin it is raging at God, blaming Him for his ruin.   

I remember when I was growing up I would hear these words quite often when I would find myself in a situation I did not like.  “You have no one to blame but yourself.”  “You made your bed now you have to lie in it.”  I will admit I did not care for those words,  I still don’t.  Blame someone else is the cry of a society filled with victims.  We are raising a generation of kids who are being taught to blame someone, anyone for your problems,  It’s not your fault.”   It’s not our folly that is bringing us to ruin it is the family I grew up in, or the school I went to, and the list goes on and on as we learn to play the blame game. 

The answer to all of this is we need to be saved not from those around us but from the folly (sin) that is in our own hearts.  Hearts that rage against God, hearts that do not seek God except to solve our problems.  We do not love God, we do not want to follow God, or obey his word.   That is man's real problem.  

We need a Saviour.  The Bible tells us we have a Saviour.   We have one who took all our folly, all our sin and paid the penalty for that sin as he hung on the cross.  God laid on Jesus Christ the iniquity of us all.  (We made our bed and Jesus laid in it.)  He bore God's wrath for my sin.  

If we will trust him, believe in Him we will be saved, given a new heart, be born again, become a new creation in Christ.  We will long to follow Christ, we will delight to feed upon His Word and obey it.  We will be adopted in God’s family and he will be a Father to us for all eternity.  He will care for us, He will correct us, he will challenge us,  He will begin to change us into the image of His son Jesus Christ.  We will begin a journey filled with joy, blessing, discipline and peace as we worship Him in the good times and in the hard times because we know that God is in control, He is working all things for our good and His glory.  

A Christian is a person who has moved from the game of blaming to the glorious journey of becoming what God created us to be in Christ.  If you are going through a hard time as a child of God, stop looking for someone to blame and start seeing it as an opportunity to become more like Jesus Christ and to glorify God through your trial.   Read 1 Peter 1:6-9,  Romans 5:1-11;  James 1:2-4  

Let me leave you with this wonderful quote from Jerry Bridges.

“Trials always change our relationship with God. Either they drive us to Him, or they drive us away from Him. The extent of our fear of Him and our awareness of His love for us determine in which direction we will move.”