A Lack of Responsibility
We've been looking at Sarai and Abram and Hagar and the kind of mess they got themselves into by not following God's ways. And verse 5 initially seems a bit amusing until we realized that we'd probably do the same thing ourselves. Sarai was the one earlier in the chapter who said to Abram, “go and sleep with Hagar and we can build a family through her.”
And then when he does that, verse 5, Sarai said to Abraham, “You are responsible for the wrong that I'm suffering!” And you can hear I'm kind of laughing because it seems so silly for her to say that she was the one who suggested this whole thing.
But if I'm honest with myself, I find it easy to blame things on other people too. I find it very easy to point fingers and deflect attention off of me instead of taking responsibility for things that I've done wrong.
Own Your Mistakes
I think people of God of all people should take responsibility with integrity and courage as they look back on the wrong things that they may have done or said.
God forgives our sins when we come to him, He cleanses us, but the consequences are still real. It’s not as if God just makes everything right at the same time as forgiving us. No, he washes away our guilt, but the consequences remain and we need to take responsibility for those. We need to be people who stop pointing fingers at others to try shift the blame.
Embrace Honest Repentance
Let me ask you some edgy questions here. Have you been rationalising your behaviour, making excuses, shifting the blame? Have you been covering up failures, whitewashing the truth, playing down the seriousness of some of the sinful habits in your life?
I don't think we need to, because in God we have a faithful, forgiving Saviour who, if we come to him honestly and repent of these things, will forgive us and cleanse us.
Friends, maybe today's the day to talk to somebody about some of this stuff in your life. Confess to somebody, take a step in making things right instead of blaming others, instead of just passing the buck. No good can come of that. But there is restoration and there is forgiveness, and there is a new start for us if we start taking responsibility and walking in godly faith.
I hope that you and I can do that today instead of falling into the mistake that Sarai did in blaming others, and looking for anywhere else to place the blame except with herself.
