Is it God, or us?

Who do we blame when things seem to go wrong?

Simple question with an answer that can be quite telling.

Proverbs 19:3 (ESV) tells us that “When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.”

The answer to the above question will reveal either a heart of humility or a heart of pride.

And lest we focus too intensely on the negative here, the same holds true for when things go right.

Where do we point, in good times or bad, as an explanation for why things are the way they are?

Admittedly, we’re all different. It’s not quite as simple as saying we either ignore God when things are going well, or we scream at Him when things are going poorly.

But let me back up here.

The point driving me to write this short message today is a personal realization how natural it feels so many times to blame God, even if that means doing so indirectly by blaming someone, or something else for my problems. Someone or something that isn’t me, more specifically.

In our natural state, in which we are spiritual dead, not at all awake to the good and true ways of our Heavenly Father, we can’t help but act exactly as our greatest ancestors did when we find ourselves in disarray. It may not be God directly, but it certainly isn’t our fault things go haywire.

It’s only after we’ve been spiritual brought to life that we can see and understand that God is so far from being the one to blame for any ill conditions we find ourselves in. Although, as some with much more wisdom and skill in communication have said in a much more eloquent and helpful way… it’s actually good that “bad” things happen. Another topic we’ll have to save for another day.

But moving one step further, even after we’ve been spiritual brought to life, our fallen nature still clings to us and fights to have a say in the way we live during our remaining days in these aging bodies.

So in a very real sense, whether we’ve been spiritual born or not, we all share a tendency to want to shake our fists at God when we get ourselves into trouble, or when trouble, on account of sin and its effects on the world, finds us.

But the tell, and this is important, is whether or not we can honestly recognize that God is not to blame, even if we can’t find a reason anywhere in the universe that it might be our fault. Because in reality, it may not even be! But that doesn’t mean it’s automatically God’s fault.

Here’s why this struck me as important.

For quite some time I’ve wrestled with the idea of assurance, that we can have confidence we have been born of the Spirit and are, in fact, adopted into God’s family through the work of Christ applied by the Spirit. Purposefully trying to give reverence to the Trinity here.

While I can admit, I doubt in this life that I’ll experience a permanent and ongoing assurance, even if only on account of my life experiences so far, I do think there are glimmers here and there that can give us clarity concerning where we stand with God.

The ultimate question here is, are we right with God?

And if so, how do we know?

In this instance, the evidence rests somewhat in whether or not we’re able to see that God is not to blame for our problems in this world.

And admittedly part of the challenge for some would be whether or not we are even capable of acknowledging God at all, whether in the good or the bad.

Nevertheless, my hope is that this message will offer either some level of hope to any believer wrestling with the assurance of their salvation, or a challenge to any who may not yet have experienced the glorious spiritual awakening that comes when we believe in Christ through the illuminating work of His Spirit, by the grace of our Heavenly Father.