Who's Fault is it Anyway?

Hello!

My sister in law (and best friend) sent me a quote from Pastor Tony Evans the other day.  It read, "You may have freedom of choice, but you do not have freedom of consequences." And then today I was going through an old journal and I saw a page that said, "Devotional Notes", when I read through it I realized that it goes right along with the same idea as the quote.

Have you ever read the book of Ruth?  It is a short book in the Bible.  It's about a family who made some wrong choices and a bunch of bad things happened.  A woman named Naomi lost her husband and two adult sons.  She was left in a strange place with two daughter in laws, one named Orpah, the other, Ruth.  Naomi decided it was time to return to her homeland and told Orpah and Ruth to return to their families but Ruth decided to remain with Naomi and go back to Bethlehem-Judah with her.  When they returned, the people said, "Is this Naomi?"  Naomi told them not to call her Naomi, but to call her Mara because God had dealt bitterly with her. 

Naomi means pleasant and Mara means bitter. If you read this story, it does seem like God had given her a bad deal.  But in reality, Naomi's husband made a wrong choice, which most likely lead to many more wrong choices and she had to suffer the consequences.   

We are too quick to blame God when things go wrong.  He has given us the gift of making our own choices.  He also lets us go to HIm and ask for some advice.  The problem is, we need to have a close relationship with Him in order to discern His reply.

Naomi's story ends with a "happily ever after" because of the faithfulness of her loyal daughter in law.  Ruth made some good choices and became the wife of a very prominent man who was kind and took good care of Naomi for the rest of her life.  

Let's not blame God for things that someone else or we have done.  God gives us advice in His book.  When we don't follow it and things go wrong, it isn't His fault. 

I keep opening up to a verse in Isaiah that says, "Let the wicked forsake way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:  and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon".  Even when we make wrong choices God is always there to forgive us and help us with our next decision.  All you have to do is ask.