Personal Responsibility

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12).

Responsibility is defined as a duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task (assigned by someone, or created by one's own promise or circumstances) that one must fulfill, and which has a consequent penalty for failure. In your daily experience are you inclined to make others responsible for your predicament? When a problem confronts you, do you look for something or someone other than yourself to blame? Do you seek out a person, thing, or condition on which to unload blame? We live in a culture of blame instead of personal responsibility. People are blaming heredity, environment, job pressures, poverty, prejudices, abuse, and anything else they can think of for their problems today. Christians today are also blaming their local church, the Pastor, the leaders, the church members, even Jesus and God for their Spiritual problems and spiritual immaturity. It will surprise you to know that your present state (both physical and spiritual) is a result of the choices you have made for yourself over the years. In the long run, you have eventually shaped your life by these choices. This process never ends until you die. The choices you make are ultimately your responsibility.

The Bible teaches very clearly that we are responsible for the choices and decisions we make daily in our life. Your beliefs are not best expressed in words but rather they are expressed in the choices you make. Your faith affects the choices you make in life. Our society has produced people who ignore their responsibilities in the choices they make and then blame others for their problems. "If I develop lung cancer from smoking, it's not my fault. I blame the cigarette companies, and they need to pay me compensation." As a society, we have become expert at blaming others. Unfortunately, this blame game has entered the church and affected the both the physical and spiritual growth of believers in Christ. When a believer begins to backslide and fall away from the Lord, he says, "It's not my fault. I'm not to blame. It's the church's fault. They aren't friendly enough, or the church didn't meet my needs, or it's the pastor's fault, he is not powerful enough. But it's not my fault." Romans 14:12 says, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God". God is going to hold us responsible for the choices we make. This problem of blame game is as old as man, remember, in the Garden of Eden when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and God put a personal question to him, he shifted the blame to the woman, and when the woman also faced a personal question from God she also shifted the blamed the serpent.

One may ask, didn't each of them (Adam and Eve) have a choice to have said no to the temptation? Anyway, the blame game did not help them; they were made to face the consequence of the personal choice they made. Personal responsibility means, we should think before we act, and consider the Consequences of our actions upon ourselves and others. God's responsibility here was to give the command and man's

responsibility here was to keep the command.

A Christian who is in the habit of blaming others for his failure to respond to the Lord's demand on him at any point in his life will not grow spiritually. Faith is obedience and faith always leads us forward in Christ. Faith is obeying God regardless of the prevailing circumstance or resulting consequence. Will you be the type of Christian that blames someone else for the choices that you make? Or will you take personal responsibility for your spiritual life and stand firm and grow in God's Word? Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Noah accepted his responsibility in the word of God that came to him and responded in faith by building the Ark. By this we say your faith in God is made complete when you take up your responsibility in His word. FAITHFULNESS IS SYNONYMOUS TO RESPONSIBILITY; A FAITHFUL PERSON IS A RESPONSIBLE PERSON. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works". Jas 2:17-18. Have you received a word from the Lord? Find out your responsibility in that word?

You must know that when you were a sinner, although salvation was free because Christ had paid for it in full, you still had the responsibility to receive Him as your savior, No one could have received Jesus on your behalf that was your personal responsibility. No one could have force you to get saved or prevent you from being saved; it was your choice in receiving what Christ has already paid for. Thank God you made the right choice.

Good, now that you are saved, it is your personal responsibility once more to continue in Christ. We are thankful to God for the people He brings into our live to help propel us to spiritual maturity. But in all reality, it is not someone else's responsibility to make me be baptized ( I must make a request), study my Bible (I need to discipline