“Mom sent me and said to put it on her bill”, I said to the store owner many long years ago. The problem was that mom didn’t send me, nor tell me to “put it on her bill”—even worse was the fact that, per dad’s orders, mom wasn’t even suppose to have a “bill”– credit was taboo. He knew nothing about the “bill”, but I did– I had heard mom refer to it. Soooo I thought I would use it to my advantage. When mom went to pay her bill she was shocked to discover that it was larger than she remembered– besides, she hadn’t purchased any pop and candy. So the investigation started, and you can guess what happened next. Needless to say, I never put anything else on mom’s bill!
While that sounds like something a child might do, children aren’t the only ones guilty of such foolish behavior. Adults often lie about God. In case you haven’t noticed, God often gets blamed for a lot of things He had nothing to do with. Again and again we hear people say, “God told me to – – -“, or if they want to sound super spiritual, “God led ,me to – – -“, when the truth is that God did no such thing. In many instances what they say clearly contradicts what the Bible says, proof that God didn’t tell them to do it. But in other cases we have no evidence either way, and they know it. They do this to get off the hook. After all, how can we argue with what “God told them” to do? They marry who they please or attend what church they please and explain it away by saying God led them or gave them permission to do so.
The saddest thing about this is that preachers are some of the worst offenders. For instance— there’s a rift in the church, or a larger church makes a better offer and suddenly the pastor says, “God led me to leave”. Or there is a moral failure or a mess created by poor leadership and we hear, “God told me to stay regardless”. Or when things don’t go their way they split the church and start another one– often where it isn’t needed. All this in the name of “God led me”. Really?
Attributing to God what we take upon ourselves to do is a dangerous thing. Trying to justify your sinful selfishness at God’s expense is not something to be taken lightly. Giving yourself permission to do as you please by falsely accusing God is sure to get you into trouble. It’s true that God often does things that seem unreasonable to the natural mind, so we have to be careful about accusing others, but sometimes it’s obvious that He didn’t have anything to do with. Saying God told you or allowed you to do something doesn’t make your wrong right, or your foolish decision wise. You might deceive others, and even yourself, but you’re not fooling God. Telling others you prayed about it and God led you to do something might keep them off your back, but it might cause God to put you on your back– so you will look up!
Our only sure guide and perfect standard is the Word of God. It is according to His word that all our steps are to be ordered. The Holy Spirit never leads us to do anything that is contrary to the Word of God. David said, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD–“(Ps. 37:23). Since that is true, our prayer should be as the Psalmist prayed in Ps. 119:133, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Fabricating an excuse to do as you please by blaming God for your foolish decision won’t keep you from falling or prevent you from getting hurt, it will do just the opposite. Think about it!
