When you make the mess, you’ll have to clean it up …

The human preference to NOT live life very thoughtfully (or very prayerfully) means we routinely create circumstances for ourselves we don’t want to experience.

It’s an entirely different thing to find yourself in a bad set of circumstances that you did NOT create — those “beyond your own control” times in life (and we all experience these times). That’s when we hope and pray that God will have mercy on our situation and intervene, and that His church will be ready to help.

It’s a different thing when we are the root cause of our failures, like in this story told by Chris Horton:

I am an English teacher, and always assign a paper at the end of the year. The students prove their aptitude by submitting their finished product in the correct format. They are given clear instructions both verbally and in written form, and are given a sample paper as well. They are instructed that papers that do not follow the guidelines will not be accepted.

One particular student, both intelligent and hard working, shocked me when they turned in a paper without a “Works Cited” page. Her paper was not accepted, so she came to my office in tears and frustration and pleaded her case. When asked about her missing section she explained, “But my friend told me that you said we didn’t need one.” Her excuse was not accepted and neither was her paper.

When we make the mess in our lives, we’re responsible for cleaning it up. Instead, we want God to step in with miracles to alleviate the consequences. When He let’s us face the mess we made, we become angry with God! Scriptures shed light on our penchant for creating havoc for ourselves, and then blaming God for it:

“People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.” – Proverbs 19:3.

James explains why its nonsense to get angry at God for our own foolishness …

“And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death,” James 1:13-15.

There are endless stories and examples of how, even when we’ve ruined our own lives, God has mercy on us. That may not mean miraculously removing the consequences of our decisions, although He sometimes eases the pain of them, but even when He doesn’t He is always willing to walk with us as we face the results of our own foolishness. God uses these times as opportunities for us to learn to be responsible children of God. I think an example of this is found in the story of how Queen Victoria of England had to learn responsibility …

When Queen Victoria was a child, she didn’t know she was in line for the throne of England. Her instructors, trying to prepare her for the future, were frustrated because they couldn’t motivate her. She just didn’t take her studies seriously. Finally, her teachers decided to tell her that one day she would become the queen of England. Upon hearing this, Victoria quietly said, “Then I will be good.” The realization that she had inherited this high calling gave her a sense of responsibility that profoundly affected her conduct from then on.

You and I have inherited a high calling from God — that of being His children and living as ambassadors for Christ. Instead of living foolishly and then becoming angry at God for the results, we need to take responsibility for our lives and live up to the high calling we have received.

“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God,” Ephesians 4:1.

“So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better,” Colossians 1:9-10.

Scotty