It’s Not My Fault 

Adam said it, Cain acted on it, and the Israelites often used it as a weapon in the wilderness during the time of Moses. Prophet Ezekiel’s time did not escape it either. Unfortunately, the same is being said by everyone today all over the world. In Genesis 3:12 Adam blamed his own error on someone else saying, “The woman whom You (referring to God) gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” He seemed to have put the blame on God for giving him a wife who deceived him and on Eve for luring him into eating it. Adam did not admit that God had forewarned him against eating that particular fruit as we read in Genesis 2:16-17 which says, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shall surely die.”(KJV) You see, blame is always our first line of self-defence. We always say, ‘It’s not my fault someone else made me do it.’ Some men continue to beat their wives and each one says ‘it’s not my fault, that’s how my daddy used to beat my mom’. Some get angry so much so that they destroy things and people around them. They say, ‘it’s not my fault, I inherited my no-nonsense attitude from my grandfather.’ Many people neglect to advance themselves in education but they blame their employers for not promoting them. Many Christians fail to see the need to meditate upon the words of God and make their requests known to God through prayer and thanksgiving, yet they blame some kind of spiritual enemy for lack of prosperity and good success. They say, ‘it’s not my fault that I am not making it, it must be my household enemy that is working against me.’ Ask yourself today, when will you stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for your own actions and decisions? When will you learn to be accountable? Do you realize that everyone will be judged according to his or her own deeds?  Ezekiel 18:30 says, “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.” (KJV) The Bible in Revelations 22:12 says, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. (NIV)  This means that Jesus is coming soon and in God’s sight you will dance to your own music. I will dance to mine. God is not partial and He won’t blame someone else for your own disobedience. Just because someone else disobeyed does not mean I should follow the same route and hope that God will only punish the one who misled me and overlook my own actions. Everyone is accountable for whatever he or she does. The Bible clearly declares that the soul that sins shall die.  You are responsible for your own life, not your ancestor nor anyone around you who may have influenced you. Adam said ‘it’s not my fault’; Eve said ‘it’s not my fault’; their son, Cain also blamed Abel because God accepted his brother’s offering and not his. See Genesis 4:6.  The people of Ezekiel’s days also blamed their ancestors for rebelling against God, but they failed to see their own negligence and offenses against God. They said to themselves, “…The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” This is to say their fathers had done things wrong in the past and they were suffering for those sins at that time. They said ‘things were bad because others made them so, without looking inwardly to see whether they were responsible for any of the calamities that befell them. What a shame! It got to a point that God had to stop them from saying this and laying blame on others. See Ezekiel 18:4-18. What must you do now? You must repent now and hold yourself responsible for the consequences of your decisions instead of shifting the blame to others around you. Let’s repent of our old ways of blaming others for our calamities. The Bible says in Ezek 18:27-28, ”Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” Repent now and live. May God help us. Do you have a new sermon notebook for year 2010? I have customized one for you. Please call 516-8605729 for your copy. Also available for your benefit is a daily devotional that you may obtain by calling 718-658-8981 Our TV programs show:Queens: QPTV 34 on Wednesdays at 10:30pm & Fridays at 5:30pmBrooklyn: BCAT 56 at 12am on SundayLong Island: CABLEVISION 20 on Saturday 7:30am   Pastor Abraham Obadare is a minister at Christ Apostolic Church WOSEM, New York City.