LifeWords 29/9/2010



TAKING RESPONSIBILITY


Read Ezekiel 18:1-4



1 Then another message came to me from the LORD: 2 “Why do you quote this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste’? 3 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel. 4 For all people are mine to judge—both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: The person who sins is the one who will die.



It is all too human to want to blame our failings on someone else. And it is true that our individual problems can be traced back to family or other social influences. We are affected by our environment. But when it comes to God assessing our conduct, we can’t shift the blame. As God says through Ezekiel in this passage, the children can’t avoid responsibility for their own actions by blaming the parents.



We each have to own the raw material we are given. We cannot choose our parents or the circumstances of our early childhood. We can only choose to respond creatively and positively to them. While we can point to instances of people who seem to have been harmed by their upbringing, we can also point to examples of those who have conquered their upbringing. Life is not so mechanical as to have us predestined to success or failure according to our childhood!



God does not condemn us because of what our parents might or might not have done. Nor does he accept us on this basis. We are responsible for our response to the commands and the mercies of God. Each of us has been to some degree a victim of circumstances beyond our control. Yet each of us has the capacity to control whether we remain a victim or move beyond victimhood to true personhood.



Blessings


David


http://www.hope1032.com.au

We cannot blame the devil, either.