a Moment for Tea: Excuses and Grace

Friday 8 June 2012

Excuses and Grace

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Every day we hear them,

every day we make them.

Interestingly, even the Bible is riddled with passages of excuses from real people. Ergo, Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the serpent for their disobedience. And one of the conversations with God that makes me pause and ponder a little longer is found also in Genesis, chapter 4:

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (verses 6,7).

Just as it had been thousands of years ago with our ancestors, we have been quite quick to pin blame. Rather than admitting that we have been wrong, we come up with, "It's because of you that I am mad," "She made me do it," "Blame it on my PMS, my age, the heat, the noisy kids..." "This is who I am."

Oftentimes, I believe that what hinder us from changing and growing out of our mistakes are when we make rationales for our actions and identify ourselves so much with our wrongdoings: "I am mad, and this is who I am... Therefore, I act this way." Until eventually, we accept them and approve of them. (Read Romans 1).

But wait a minute! God clearly states that we don't have to be a slave to our mistakes or have our identities marked by the wrong that we do: "sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it."

God has made a way for us to overcome through the blood of Jesus Christ because of His love for us. Freedom is as easy as ABC, they say: A-admit that we have been wrong, B-believe that Christ came to save us, and C-confess that Jesus is the only way to God, and commit our lives to Him.*

Honestly, sometimes, the reason that we make excuses is because we are asking for a little grace. But the beauty of admitting and confession is that we accept that we are wrong and we would like to change that. And in addition, the more beautiful thing is that Jesus desires for our freedom and has granted us grace long before we had any idea of Him. :)

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

1 John 4:10