Just Obey - No Excuses
“It is not my fault.” This mentality is very common in today’s culture. Wrong actions are blamed on parents upbringing or environment. We are a lawsuit happy society. No matter what happens, it is easy to make excuses and blame someone else. It is true that our actions are influenced by a variety of factors, but God still holds us responsible. Below are five excuses we often make.
 Christ wants us to just obey with no excuses (Mathew 4:18-19; Luke 9:23-24). We need to apply this mental attitude in the area of His commands but also other areas. God has given us wisdom through scripture to make wise decisions. We need to do what we think is best and quit making excuses.
Here are some excuses we use when it comes to obeying.
Excuse #1: I don’t feel like. doing it.
- Reality: It takes self-denial to follow Christ and accomplish anything in life.
- Reality: The good feelings come after accomplishment
Excuse #2: I’ll do it in the future or I can do it later
- Reality: We will run out of time.
- Reality: Delay causes more problems.
Excuse #3: No one is perfect, or everyone does this.Â
- Reality: God is in the business of changing people and expects us to change.
Excuse #4: This is who I am, I can’t change or this is how God created me
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- Reality: Character qualities and attitudes can and should change.
Excuse #5: I’m too busy
- Reality: We don’t manage time, we manage how we use it.
- Reality:Â We make time for what is important to us.
- Reality:It is very tempting to focus on the urgent and not what is important:
Urgent = What we think must be done now and has short term results (Changing a diaper, paper due tonight, visiting Someone in the hospital).
Important = Truly valuable things that have long term results (spending time with children, outreach, personal development, scripture reading, etc).
As we “Just Obey - No excuses” we will become more of the person God wants us to be. The side benefit is that we will also increase our chance of success in different areas in this life because we are “doing what is best with no excuses.”
(c) Arlen Busenitz - Truthapplied.com
Given at church on December 10, 2006