Truth or Lie #13: I am Responsible Before God

Truth:    I am responsible before God for my behavior, responses, and choices.

Lie:         I’m not fully responsible for my actions. There are many people and factors to blame for who I am.

 

Life is full of choices.

Walk into a store, and you’re showered with decisions. 

Green? or Blue?

Healthy? or tastes good?

Well-made?  or cheap?

            Buy now?  or wait until later?

Get up in the morning, and all day, you’ll find yourself bombarded by choices.

                What should I wear?

                What do I fix for breakfast?

                What time should I leave the house?

                What should I listen to in the car?

                                And the list goes on . . . and on. . .

Seems life is stitched together by the threads of decisions.

Despite this fact, when it comes to who we are, we tend to hold others' choices responsible and not our own.

The good, we’ll credit to our well-made decisions.

The bad, we’ll blame what we had no control over.

We consider ourselves victims to that which we didn’t decide—circumstances of our birth and upbringing; actions of others toward us; and the list goes on.

We’ve each been influenced by a myriad of factors.

But influence is not the thread of life. Our own personal decisions have stitched our lives together.

The beautiful truth is . . . I am responsible before God for my behavior, responses, and choices.

I call this truth “beautiful,” because if I am to blame, by God’s grace, I can change; I can repent;  I can find forgiveness in the only One who justly took the responsibility of others.

I call this truth “beautiful,” because it means I’m not responsible for others’ actions or reactions—either toward me or before God.

I am only responsible for my own choices.

When we stand before God, we won’t be accompanied by anybody else. Our circumstances and all the factors that influenced our lives won’t come alongside to plead for us. They won’t even enter the picture.

You and I will stand before God responsible for ourselves alone.

And, thankfully, through Christ, we will stand there clothed in His righteousness.

Let’s not spend our days stitching together the fig leaves of blame and the actions of others.

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This is Part 13 in a series, called “Truth or Lie,” based on the book, Lies Women Believe: and the Truth that Sets Them Free by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

In the final chapter, Nancy highlights 22 freeing truths that are essential to our Christian lives.

Come back each Monday (or subscribe to Capacity Corner) as we look together at these 22 truths one-by-one.

And feel free to share your own thoughts below!