Hosanna Restoration Church

Does it bother you when people make excuses about things? Even about good things? I will let you in on a family secret here. My wife is an extraordinary wife, mother, and homemaker, so when she serves us something that is really good and begins to make excuses for something that none of knows anything about, it stirs me up a bit. I can never figure out why she wants to make an excuse when it is perfect to us. Not a juicy secret, but it is all you get! So really, none of likes to hear people make excuses about things good or bad, but how do we feel about the excuses we ourselves make.

It occurred to me as I was doing battle with a physical virus that excuses are a bit like viruses. They are not good for us. This is especially true when it comes to our walk with God. Jesus came to show us what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is. He said He was the way, truth, and life. If we walk in His ways, holding fast to the truth, we will experience the abundant life that He came to give us.

As we recently discussed the importance of hearing and excepting the word of God, noting that no exceptions are acceptable, it stands to reason that we better be on the look out for excuses. You see excuses are what we use to make exceptions acceptable. So how are excuses like a virus? If you hang around them long enough, they will make you sick. As long as a virus is far away from you, you feel fine right. In fact there are long lists of things designed to protect us against them. These lists include everything from how to wash our hands, to what foods to eat, and even what medicine to take at the first sign of a virus. People line up for shots because we prefer to keep them far from us, but once they gain an entrance into our bodies, they can be miserable and in some cases result in physical death. Excuses can accomplish the same thing in our spiritual walk.

So we know that we should not make excuses, because often times, excuses are outright lies. We for sure know that we should not lie but we also know that people have even come up with excuses as to when lying is appropriate. Sorry, that just does not fly. Once we start making excuses it leads to other symptoms. If we excuse one thing, we will probably have to excuse another and another and another. It is like going out of our way get sick! And it will make us spiritually sick sooner than later.

With viruses, they will run a course different ways with different people. A person who is weaker or in poor health can be affected much more that a person in good health. Of course there are also times when a little old virus can put a strong healthy specimen right on his or her back.

Next time we will look at the courses that the excuse virus might take in our spiritual lives.