Sometimes I have experienced the very opposite of what I thought God would do. As a result, I have had bitter sessions with Him, and blamed Him for failing to fulfill my expectations. I said with Jeremiah, “Thou hast deceived me and I was deceived” (Jeremiah 20:7). Jeremiah preached God’s word, but the results were not what he expected. His hearers beat him and threw him into jail. That is when he turned on God and blamed Him for the outcome.
The world blames God daily. There is not a trouble or a catastrophe that God is not blamed for. It is characteristic of the natural man to shift the blame to someone else; it is uncharacteristic of the disciple to do so. Therefore, we must ask why.
Blaming God is, first, the result of confused expectations. Jeremiah expected certain things to happen; God allowed different things to happen. He had programmed God too tightly, too rigidly; and when his program did not materialize, he grew tense and bitter. Second, it is the result of becoming too personally involved in the results. This is dedication out of control. Results are always in God’s hands, and we must not feel personally responsible for them; otherwise, the tension will make us burst out against God.
Blaming God is the sign of an overheated disciple. Zeal for the Lord’s work has consumed him. His sensitivities have been strained finer than they ought. It is time to back off, cool down, and get disengaged. Only One could be that zealous for His Father’s house and not get strained. The rest of us, the common clay, need the quieting admonition. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, KJV).
“But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God; who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number” (Job 5:8–9).
Daily with the King 