Rationalizing Excuses For Poor Choices
Tuesday October 23, 2018
Today we are continuing to look at the excuses and reasons we give for making poor choices and our tendency to want to justify our actions.
We don’t always make the right choices, certainly not in active addiction, and even now in recovery it is a learning process. God has provided a way for us to learn and grow. That way is to first receive the forgiveness God is offering us because Jesus died on the cross to pay for the damage of all our wrong choices. We need to stand in the truth of who God says we are - flawed human beings but precious and valued sons and daughters of God who are washed and cleansed from all our sins.
There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. (Romans 8:1-2 NLT)
Without accepting forgiveness and a right relationship with God, we will continue to rationalize because we are afraid of the shame, the pain, the embarrassment, or the disappointment that has resulted from our previous poor choices. It seems easier to make excuses for our behaviour or to blame someone else, so the burden is “off our shoulders.” As long as rationalizing makes us feel better, we deceive ourselves into thinking that the situation has improved. To be honest and confess that we have made poor choices may, in the short term, threaten our comfort zone, be inconvenient in the moment, or even cause us embarrassment. However, regardless of these feelings, we need to come clean and admit to our wrongs.
Sometimes we've rationalized our behaviour for so long that it has become an unconscious process rather than an attempt to deliberately deceive. We need to seek God to awaken us to the harmful choices we are making. He knows the poison stored in the roots of our destructive actions and reactions. He knows and understands the actual impact of all the events that make up our lives – both good and bad.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Help me to give up excusing and rationalizing my behaviour and take responsibility for my actions. Help me to accept the truth of Your word and live in the grace and freedom that is mine through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Amen
©2018 Partners in Hope
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