It's not my fault (the Devil made me do it)

Heraclitus said: “The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.”

We are a culture of blamers. In politics we blame the other party. In traffic, we blame the other drivers. In relationships, we blame the other person. It appears that one of the greatest tricks of the enemy is to take the focus off of our faults, and blame other people for our dissatisfaction.

In the story of Genesis 3:1-7, we see that one of the Serpent’s greatest tricks was to cause Eve to become dissatisfied with what she had, desiring what she did not have, and to consider that God was being dishonest towards her.

To put it another way, Satan tempted Eve to blame God for not letting her eat of one certain fruit, blame God for not wanting her to “be like God,” and blame God for making something so attractive to be so wrong.

This same style of temptation attacks us today.

We become dissatisfied with all of the things we have in life. Rather than counting our blessings and considering all that we have, we focus in on the one thing that we do not have (and in 99.9% of the cases it is a thing that we should not have), and we focus in on the one who is withholding it from us.

We are tempted to question God’s goodness and we put ourselves in the place of God when we blame others, or blame God for our dissatisfaction. As believers we ought to follow the Apostle Paul’s example, when he says in Philippians 4:11 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

The heart that is satisfied is the heart that is prepared to submit and worship, and it is the heart that is better equipped to resist the temptation of the enemy.

Submit. Worship. Resist. Repeat.

Points to Ponder:

• Who are the people I am most prone to blame? (God, spouse, children, boss, etc.)
• Make a list of the things you are desiring or the areas of your life you find yourself dissatisfied with. After writing the list, take a few minutes to pray & surrender every single item on the list to God’s care. Then ask Him to give you a heart like Paul’s: satisfied regardless of the situation.