When God Is Your Reason For Failure

What expectations do you have of God? Do you think God has disappointed you in one way or the other? What would have been the condition of your life, if God had done what you expected of Him?

Many religious people are struggling with unsettled confusion about the place of human responsibility and what is reasonable to expect by way of supernatural interventions. We wonder why some unbelievers do so well while many believers find it extremely hard to make meaningful gains in life. The major problem with most Christians who are unsuccessful has to do with a gross misunderstanding they have about how God works. This misunderstanding leaves many believers in a state of anticipation for God to make delivery of things He has given them both ability and responsibility to do for themselves.  

According to the creation account in Genesis 1:28, the first thing God gave to mankind is His blessing! You were blessed before you were born. When He blessed the human species and said “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth…” three important things took place. The blessing was a supernatural way of infusing the ability and capacity for us to be productive. It is also an instruction for us to take responsibility for the outcome of our lives.

Everyone, believers and unbelievers alike, were blessed before their birth. That blessing is given by God for high achievement and cannot be revoked by any means. However, the value of the First Blessing is procured by diligent application of skill and hard work. It is because of the First Blessing that the marriages of responsible unbelievers can be so vital while irresponsible believers make a mess of their marriage with bad attitude.  

So an unbeliever who works diligently can procure the value of the First Blessing while a lazy and unproductive believer will languish in poverty in spite of the religiosity and prayerfulness of that believer. The hard truth is that prayer is not a substitute for being diligent in business. If your attitude to life is bad, fat offerings and long prayers won’t make up for it.  

So God made a home for Adam in the Garden of Eden to work by solving the problem of the hardness of the ground. By solving that problem, he would be able to fend for himself and his family. After showing man what to do to produce food, God never provided food for them again because He had given them both the ability and responsibility to do that for themselves! When the first couple noticed their nakedness, God clothed them and thereby showed them how to produce their own clothing. He never did that again for them.  

In Judges 6:13, we are introduced to a man who cited God as the reason for all the bad experiences they were having. Those who habitually blame others for the failures in their lives, never brace themselves to take responsibility to make a difference. So, Gideon settled for far less than he was destined to enjoy. An angel had to tell him the hard truth. God would not come down from heaven to fulfill his expectation. If he was waiting on God to make a difference in their situation, he would have waited forever. Responsibility is the mother of possibilities. The angel charged him to go and deal with the challenges he had been running away from. The moment he accepted responsibility, he started experiencing what he had been waiting on God for.

Many people tend to follow in this unfortunate steps of Gideon. They blame God for every misfortune in their lives. They look forward to a time in the future that is free of challenges. A time when fishes fall from the sky and bars of gold are disposed at their doorsteps by a mysterious act of God.

The reality is that no time in the future holds bountiful prospects for anyone who does not take responsibility to make things happen. It is an exaggerated and unrealistic optimism to wait in anticipation for a mysterious turnaround of events in your life without taking pragmatic steps to go for what you want. You already have the blessing for prosperity, just work with it. Responsibility is the bridge that connects ability and productivity.

God is not responsible for the failures in your life. And if you will look very well, you may discover that the challenges you are going through are pregnant with opportunities you can harness to better your lots in life. It is a shame to cite God as the reason for the shortfalls in your life when there are unbelievers around you who are making useful gains under the same circumstances.

If God is your reason for failure, you have no reason at all! Wake up!