No Excuses

NO EXCUSE SUNDAY.

I am always amused by the different excuses people come up with to explain their actions or different situations.

Have you ever noticed how we can come up with some really funny excuses? People must put a lot of effort and thought into their excuses.

Here is just a sampling of excuses people make for various things.

I can’t come to work today, my fish is sick and I have to take it to the vet.

Cynthia can’t come to school today because she is sick and I had her shot.

I am sorry I missed church last week; there was a sermon on the radio.

Please excuse Margaret from Jim, she is administrating.

Nancy will not be at work today, her lungs are too full to be outside.

This one can only be used for not showing up to work on a Monday. I forgot to carry in the Sunday paper, so when I saw the paper there, I thought it was Sunday. By the time I realized it was Monday, it was too late, so I stayed home.

We can come up with all sorts of excuses for the things we do. Some are legitimate and some are not.

Perhaps in some people’s minds the excuses we use will continue to work but sooner or later we are going to have to take responsibility for who we are and what we do.

We can’t keep blaming our behavior on other things.

I have declared today as “No Excuse Sunday” so that we can all fulfill God’s purpose for our lives.

PRAYER

Father, open my eyes to see Your Word.

Open my ears to hear.

Open my mind to understand.

And open my heart so I may receive Your Word today.

AMEN

Is there such a thing as a good excuse? Probably not.

The human nature jumped on the idea of finding excuses to cover our short falls.

Adam and Eve, after eating the forbidden fruit started coming up with excuses. Adam blamed the woman and he blamed God and Eve blamed the serpent.

Since that time, the instincts of humanity is to shift the blame to other people, places or things. One could say that we live in an excuse-oriented society.

How many times have you heard someone say they cannot change? Change is always happening but people come with up with excuses not to change.

They say things like, “If God loves me as I am, then why should I change?” Or, “God doesn’t change why should I?” Or, “Why should I change, everyone else should change.” Or they say, “Well it is different for me because,” and then give you a list of reasons why it is different for them.

One person defined an excuse as “the meat of a lie covered by the skin of reason.”

Excuses are generally self-focused and self-absorbed so that a person can justify themselves.

Do we need to go to such great efforts to justify ourselves? No, not if we are living up to our potential and destiny in God.

We would not need to be making such elaborate excuses for the way we are if we were living under the advice of the apostle Paul who said, “I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:14

As children of God we are called to be spiritual marksmen, aiming for the mark that God has set before us.

What happens sometimes is that people will try to adjust the mark to line up with where they are. They shoot the arrow and when it falls short they move the bull’s eye.

God sets the standards for us to aim at and those standards cannot be moved.

We try to move the standards by making excuses. When we make the excuses we end up living well below our full potential in Christ.

God has a purpose and a plan for each of our lives and the excuses we use when we fill short will rob us of our potential and hold us back from all that God wants to accomplish in us and through us.

There are 6 ways in which excuses will hold us back.

1. Excuses justify the need to not change.

If we are not changing we are not growing in the Lord. In Christ we are a new creation, sounds like change to me.

2. Excuses validate mediocrity.

Which do you prefer, the best or second best? God does not want us to settle for second best. His desire is to pour blessings into our lives, but those blessings will never come if we settle for second best.

I believe that my God is not a god of mediocrity. His plans for me are the greatest plans.