I didn’t get the promotion because my boss doesn’t like me.
I got a bad grade because the teacher is bad.
My hair doesn’t grow because my brain is too big.
Okay, maybe that last one is just for me. But it makes it so easy for us to accept our shortcomings if we can somehow pin the responsibility on someone else. If it wasn’t all my fault, then it wasn’t my fault at all. Regrettably, we often do the same thing with our sin.
Think about it. What causes us to sin? Our sinful nature…sure. But what do we say usually precedes a sinful act? That’s right, temptation. We always talk about being tempted, or giving in to temptation. We act as though temptation is some great entity that controls us.
And since we know that temptation does not come from God, we usually assign it to the devil. And as soon as we make that decision, we have our scapegoat. We have our excuse. If we can blame Satan for our temptation which leads to our sin, we are giving up the responsibility of our own decision making. Just like we put Eve’s sin of eating from the tree on the serpent, we blame the devil for tempting us and tricking us into rebelling against God. (FYI: That’s kind of the definition of sin.)
As I mentioned earlier, this makes it easier for us to dismiss our own mistakes. If we blame Satan for our sin, we feel better about ourselves. Far too often, we use the devil as a scapegoat to ease our conscience and allow us to ignore our lack of obedience.
If we want to grow closer to God, if we want to see His Kingdom here on earth, if we want to be holy, we must stop using Satan as a scapegoat.
Be obedient.
Own your decisions.
Take responsibility.
Stop making excuses.