This is the first game ever played by mankind. It dates as far back as the beginning of time, in the garden of Eden. Adam was the first player, closely followed by Eve. (Genesis 3:1-13)

In today’s world, the blame game is as good as normal and virtually every single one of us is in on it.

“It’s not me, it’s the devil” is a line commonly used by people who are trying to avert the consequences of their own actions. It should not surprise you that Christians are also guilty of this.

One thing about the blame game is that it’s a convenient way of covering up one’s sin. Adam had clearly sinned against God. He was aware that he had just disobeyed God but rather than come clean and confess that he’s sorry, he chose to blame Eve who also responded by blaming the serpent. If you read closely, you’d realize that Adam did not even answer God’s question to him; he quickly resorted to blame (Genesis 3:11-13). Who knows what would have happened if our forefathers had owned up to their wrongdoings rather than find who to take the fall for it? I’m not guaranteeing I would have done better if I was in their position, but who knows? Looking for who to pass the blame to prevents you from actually acknowledging your shortcomings; it either blinds you from seeing it or proves to be a flawed attempt to cover your sins (because you can’t hide anything from God). Covering your sins prevents you from prospering (Proverbs 28:13).

Blaming others for things you should take responsibility for may not necessarily lead you to cover up your sin. It may just blind you from seeing what is truly important. A student who is also a worker in church could come out with an unimpressive result. It’s easy to make his/her church activity take the fall for it rather than realize the need to draft either a better routine plan or simply devote more time to reading. In the end, blaming that church activity would most likely not help him/her produce better results.

On the other hand, another case study is King David, the man after God’s heart…such a title! He was hardly ever found playing the blame game. Let’s travel back to around 3,000 years ago where David was King of Israel. His nation was at war but for some unsaid reason, he remained at home and there he spotted Bathsheba bathing. He decided to sleep with her and to cover that sin, he committed yet another sin. However, after he tried to conceal the truth, a Prophet came and spoke God’s judgement to him. Notice one thing. David did not start telling God of how he was “minding his business” and Bathsheba was the one that was wrong for having her bath so openly. Instead, he started to confess his sins and seek God’s forgiveness. That is one thing to emulate about David. He did not try to conceal his sin by passing blame. (2 Samuel chapters 11-12)

Although I mentioned earlier that the blame game started from our forefathers, it has only continued this long because we have allowed it. Training our younger ones and growing believers to take responsibility for their actions and understand that with each action comes a reward or consequence would go a really long way in putting this bad game to an end (Proverbs 22:6). We must also subject ourselves to the constant renewing of our minds to learn to take responsibility (Romans 12:2). Our Father is responsible and so we must be responsible as well, especially for our actions. You cannot go about with a nasty attitude, expect that people would treat you better and get upset or begin to blame a “witch” in your village for your tough luck.

You would be amazed the amount of prayer points you would need not pray anymore once you opt out of the blame game and choose to be responsible for your actions!