Blaming God

2 Peter 1:4,5 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

I met a man once, who in the midst of his own self-inflicted destruction, decided that God had just not chosen him. He had asked God to take away his defects and the fact that this man continued in his destructive ways was evidence (to him) that God just did not want him. He therefore, could just continue on his path of the flesh, blaming God for it all the while.

It sounds silly, but I do this too. I ask God to change me and when He does not change me in the manner I want, I object. God, just take away my appetite for donuts. He may tell me to do whatever it takes to deny self and pursue the spirit, which will grow the fruit of self-control in me. That’s not the answer I wanted. I just want you to take away the defect right now. If you really are all-powerful and you really do care, you would do it my way. It is silly with donuts, but I think we all do this with pride, anxiety, depression, lust, anger, greed, and selfishness.

Peter says that God has given me the tools I need to live the divine life. He says that I have this choice to live my life in either the divine nature or in the corruption of my flesh. Living close to the flesh, in the corruption of my own desire is easy to do but painful in the end. Peter says that God has given me the tools to have true life, free from that destruction of the flesh nature. So, when I find myself in the misery of my own flesh, I have to ask, is this God’s fault or mine?

In my worst destruction, I came to that obvious realization, that when faced with the possibility of whether it was God or me who was defective, the answer is never God. It is never God that is failing to pull his weight in this relationship. He is God and He does not fail me. When faced with the likelihood of who is causing the misery of my flesh, I am always the culprit.

God gives me this daily choice of pursuing him or pursuing me. He has given me the tools to plant and grow life. I already know how to grow misery and death. I now am learning how to partake of the divine and live life as God meant me to live it. When I find myself in the misery of my own flesh, I need to do whatever it takes to leave it behind and follow Christ.