Ever been blamed for something you didn’t do? Sure you have! It happens to everyone, some more than others. And it doesn’t feel good. It happens a lot in ministry. I can’t even begin to count the number of times people would come up to me and say, “Why did you decide to do …” and then complain about a change that was not my decision. Sometimes I didn’t even know what they were griping about!  But most of the time it was something that had been done by others.

I’ll give you an example. Our congregation had two worship services on Sunday mornings. Sunday School and Bible Class were in between the two services. Someone on our Board of Education at that time heard about a congregation that had a Summer Schedule with only one worship service at the time Sunday School was the rest of the year, which would then be followed by Sunday School. Her idea was that it might increase the attendance at both Sunday School and Bible Class. She reasoned that if families with children were already there for worship it would be easier for them to stay for Sunday School. They took their idea to the Elders, who approved it, and we started announcing that we would alter our Sunday morning schedule between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

That is when the complaints started. One was, “Who gave you permission to change our schedule?” “Nobody asked my opinion on this!” “Why can’t we just keep doing things the way we always have!”  (Which was funny because at this point, we had only had two services for about three years).

I tried to explain to each of these people that it was not my decision or even my idea, but I supported it and hoped it would indeed boost our attendance at Sunday School. And you know what? It did!  We had more people in both adult and children’s classes during that time. And just so you know, I didn’t take credit for that. I was unwilling to take credit for something I didn’t do just as I didn’t want the blame for something I didn’t do.

Think about how often we blame God for everything that is wrong in our lives. And then think about what Jesus has done for you. He came to this earth to take the blame for us. We have all sinned and fallen short of what God would have us do. We deserve condemnation. But Jesus took the blame, even though He was innocent of any wrongdoing. And He offered His perfection as the payment for the sins of the world. Faith in Him receives what He did for you and makes you clean and forgiven in God’s sight.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We need to be careful not to try to take the credit for what God has done. We didn’t earn our salvation. We earned punishment. But Jesus made it possible for us to stand before God with His righteousness.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for taking the blame I deserved.