-- Sunday, 7/25/10 -- POINTING THE FINGER AT GOD -- Judges 6:13

[J.R. & Bonnie Ricks]

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POINTING THE FINGER AT GOD -- Judges 6:13 NIV

 

"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?  Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?'  But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."

 

Gideon was questioning God's failure to help.  He had heard about all the wonderful things God had done for Israel - getting them out of Egypt - but now all he could see was that God had abandoned the people.  What he didn't acknowledge was that Israel was in this mess because they had chosen not to follow God.  What he wanted to do was blame God for the problems the people were having.  True to human nature, Israel didn't want to take responsibility for its own actions.

 

When disaster strikes our lives, we, too, are quick to blame God or the economy or the government or our friends or relatives for what is happening to us.  "God abandoned me, and now I'm in jail" is much easier to say than, "I robbed a bank and am now paying for my crime."  When we look at the mess our nation and the world have become, it's much easier to say that God has abandoned us than to admit that we have allowed – in fact, encouraged – everything to happen that is happening right now.  God had not abandoned Israel in Gideon's day; Israel had abandoned God.  Today, God has not abandoned the United States and all the other countries who are in trouble today; the United States and all the other countries who are in trouble today have abandoned God.  God has not abandoned the world; the world has abandoned God.

 

When problems arise in our lives, the first place we should look is within ourselves.  Is the problem something that we have caused through our own action or inaction?  If it’s not, then we can look elsewhere for the cause.  But if it is – if our own action or inaction is the cause – the first thing we need to do is to be accountable… to accept responsibility for our own behavior… to confess that sin to God and seek forgiveness.  And then commit to making the change God wants us to make.

 

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