Stop Blaming God: It's Not His Fault Ep. 15

Sarah Annie Schneider: To the Addicted to God Podcast. I'm Sarah Schneider, and I am addicted to God. I'm not a doctor, a therapist, or even a Bible scholar. I'm just a girl with an addictive personality who fell completely in love with Jesus. Here's the thing nobody tells you. That desperate, all or nothing, I need this feeling that you've been fighting your whole life, that's not your problem. That's your wiring. God gave you that hunger. You just need a better addiction. The entire foundation of this podcast can be summed up in this one verse, Mark twelve thirty. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. That means all of it. That means all of you. That's the transfer. And that's where you will find freedom. I spent over a decade mentoring women behind bars, and what God showed me in those jail cells was. Change the way that I see addiction, faith, and what it actually means to be free. So no matter what has you held back, substances, screens, approval, pain, or something nobody even knows about that you're keeping a secret. You're in the right place. No shame, no judgment, just truth, real stories, and a God who is more powerful than anything you're facing. Because Mark ten twenty seven says with man, This is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God. So let's get addicted to God together. I want to start by asking you a question. Have you ever caught yourself saying, or at least thinking, something like this? Why did God give me this addiction? If God really loved me, he wouldn't have made me this way. Or I can handle this, it's not really a problem. If any hit home, you're not alone. And today we're going to talk about why those thoughts feel so true and why they're actually dangerous lies that you have been believing. But here's the thing. If you're blaming God for your addiction, your struggle, your craving, or your captivity, you're doing exactly what Satan wants you to do. And I know that's a lot right out of the gate, so stay with me. By the end of this episode, I want you to know that Who is actually responsible for the mess? Who is actually fighting for your freedom? And how you can start using God's word like a weapon against the lies that have been keeping you trapped. Let's start with the blame game. That ancient old trick. Here's what I love about the Bible. It doesn't sanitize human nature. It tells the truth about us, even when it's embarrassing. And the truth is the blame game is nothing new. It is literally the oldest story in the book. If you go back to Genesis chapter three, right in the beginning of the Bible, you will read that Adam and Eve are living in the Garden of Eden. It's perfect. There is no pain, no shame, no addiction, no broken relationships. God literally gave them everything, and I mean everything, with the exception of one boundary. One. Just one. Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, this serpent shows up. And I want you to notice something here. Genesis three one says that the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. This was not some random snake. This was a calculated, intentional, strategic enemy. And his very first move was He twisted what God said. He didn't say God doesn't exist. He said did God really say? Which means he planted a seed of doubt about God's goodness, God's intentions, and whether or not God's boundaries were actually in our best interest. Does this sound familiar? Because that same voice is still whispering today, did God really say you can't have this? Did God really say you need to surrender that? Are you sure God isn't holding something out on you? So what did Eve do? She ate the fruit. And then she gave some to Adam, who was right there with her in the garden. And when God comes looking for them, you need to notice what happens. God asks Adam, Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? And Adam says, Get this. He says, The woman you gave me. She gave me some fruit from that tree and I ate it. That's Genesis three hundred twelve. Did you catch that? Adam didn't just blame Eve, he blamed God. That woman you put here, God, this is on you, God. If you hadn't given me this woman, none of this would have happened. That pattern, that ancient, deeply human pattern is still running in us today. When our lives are a mess, When we are enslaved to something, when we are hurting, our first instinct is to look up and say, God, how could you let this happen to me? These are the lies we tell ourselves. So let me walk through some of these specific lies. I want you to be honest with yourself as I name them. Lie number one: God gave me this addiction. This is just how He made me. I have heard some version of this from the women I mentor in jail. Sarah, I've tried to stop, but I can't. This is just who I am. Maybe God made me this way. And I understand it. When a craving is that strong, when the pull is that powerful, it is so easy to conclude that God must be behind it. But here's what God's word actually says. In James 1, 13 through 14, when tempted, no one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. You see, God did not give you your addiction. Not the substance addiction, not the approval addiction, not the shopping addiction, neither the scrolling addiction. Not one of them. The temptation that drags us away, that's not God's doing. So here's line number two. If God loved me, he wouldn't let me struggle like this. ⁓ this one is painful. But it feels logical. If God is good and God loves you, then why is life so hard? Why hasn't He fixed this yet? Why do you still wake up every morning fighting that same battle? I want to answer this one carefully, and I'm going to come back to it in a few minutes with something from James I that completely reframed this for me. But let me say this up front. The presence of struggle does not mean the absence of God's love. And verse I love to cling to to keep this in perspective is Romans eight, thirty eight and thirty nine. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Did you catch that? Nothing. Not your addiction, not your past, not your worst moment. Nothing separates us from God's love. So let's go on to line number three. I can't control it or it's not that bad. You see, this one is sneaky because it sounds like strength. It actually sounds like confidence. I've got this. I can stop whenever I want. I remember a woman in jail, I'll call her Renee. She told me she had been telling herself for six years that she could quit anytime she wanted. She just didn't want to yet. She had a good job, a decent apartment, her kids were still with her. It's not that bad, she told herself, until the day it was. Until the day she made one decision that cost her everything. She had been telling herself that she was in control. This lie, I can control this, is so dangerous because it cuts off the entire lifeline that actually works. And that lifeline is God. John 15 5 says, Apart from me, You can do nothing. And that's not a criticism. That's an invitation. You weren't designed to wrestle your way through life on your own strength. None of us were. I often think of myself back in the garden. What would I do if God had said, This is the one boundary you can't have? I really believe I would have messed up just like Eve did. I sincerely do. Because I am weak. I can be persuaded. I can convince myself that God didn't really say that. Let's really get to the heart of this. Who actually is to blame? So if God didn't give you this addiction and willpower isn't the answer, then who and what is actually behind it? John ten gives us a hint. And that is what Jesus actually says. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come. That they may have life and have it to the full. I sincerely encourage you to look this up in your Bible, highlight it, and even put it to memory. This verse tells us who is responsible for the destruction in our lives. There's a thief, there's a killer, there is a destroyer. And that's not God. Jesus draws the sharpest possible contrast. The thief steals, kills, and destroys. Jesus gives life and nothing. Just a barely surviving life either. It's a full life, abundant life, the life we were actually created for. Ephesians 6.12 says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, and against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Friends, we have a real enemy. And when we are blaming God, we are letting that enemy completely off the hook while pushing away the only one who has the power to set us free. First Peter five eight is actually one of my most sobering verses because it says, Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. That someone is you and me. It's not a cartoon villain. It's not a harmless fairy tale. It's a roaring lion, strategic, patient, and looking for an open door to take us down. And his favorite open door convincing us that God is not on our side. I want to talk about free will for just a minute. God does give us free will. That is real and it is important, thankfully. As a matter of fact, when I first heard of free will, I was fearful that becoming a Christian meant I would be like a marionette on strings and that God was just gonna be sitting up there in heaven dangling my arms and legs to do his becking. And I quickly learned free will gives us a chance to make choices, but our choices can have consequences. I'm not here to tell You that none of your decisions are your responsibility because at the end of the day, our decisions are our responsibility. But what free will does not mean is that we are operating on a level playing field. We have an enemy who's working against us. He's smarter, more experienced, and he's more strategic than we want to give him credit. Think about it this way. Imagine you're playing a board game. And the person across from you's been studying the rules and the strategies for thousands of years. And every time you get close to winning, they flip the board. That's a way of imagining what we're up against. Second Corinthians 4 4, a verse I go to often on this podcast. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ. You see, when we are living with addiction, I've covered this in a previous episode. We're actually in bondage and literally blind. We can't see God clearly. We can't see how good He is or how desperately He wants our freedom. That blindness is not an accident. It's engineered. So yes, we have free will. Unfortunately, we also have an enemy who is actively influencing our every choice. The answer is not to try harder, the answer is to fight smarter with God's power. And not our own. So I want to come back to the question I promised that I wanted to address later in this episode. Why God allows hard things? Why does God allow suffering? Why doesn't He just fix it? He's God. If He can do anything, He can take it all of it away, right? I need to be very careful here because I don't want to be glib about pain, especially real, real pain. Some of the things that you've been through, things that were done to you, circumstances you didn't choose. I don't want to minimize that for even a second. But here's what God is telling us about suffering in James one two through four. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. When I was a new Christian, I was struggling with something. I remember saying to my pastor, whom I was confiding in at the time, and I said, I know I'm supposed to be joyful when I face trials. And my pastor looked at me and said, No, you're not. Pain hurts, and you need to acknowledge that. But what you do need to realize is that there is a greater purpose behind it. Wow, talk about me taking that verse out of context. But that's exactly what I had done. This is one of those verses that sounds almost cruel until you understand what God is actually doing. He's not causing pain, and he's also not happy that you're suffering. Nor does he expect you to be happy in suffering. But what he is doing is he's not wasting it either. He's a redeemer, and that's literally one of his names. He takes broken, ruined, ravaged things and makes them into something new. It's really important to recognize the part in James one. two through four that follows the so that. This is probably a great Bible tip for those of you who are new to scripture. I like seeing pivoting words because of so that but God. In James one, after the so that we should consider pure joy when we face trials is so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. God wants us to not lack anything. That is definitely not A scarcity, self defeating mindset. It's the motivation and underlying love that God has for us. Another verse that powerfully reinforces this is Romans eight twenty eight. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Note He doesn't say all things are good. It says God works in all things for good. There's a difference. Your addiction is not good. The things that led you to it may not have been good. But God is big enough to take that and work it for his purpose and for your good. I have seen this with my own eyes in the jail cells. Women who came in at the absolute lowest point of their lives, who lost everything. And because of what happened inside of those walls, they found Jesus. They found freedom. They found a calling to help other women who were going through or struggling with the same thing as them. God didn't put them there, but he showed up there. And that's what I love about God. He shows up. I want to conclude with the power that we have access to. And this is where I need you to lean in. This is the part that gives me the chills every time I think about it. When we stop blaming God and we run to Him instead, we get access to something that is available nowhere else on earth. First, we get God the Father, who is sovereign, who is good, who is completely for us. Romans eight thirty one says this if God is for us, who can be against us? Second, we get Jesus, who already interceded for us, who already paid the price that gives us access to God. Hebrews seven twenty five says Jesus lives to intercede for us. He is actively interceding on our behalf. And third, this is the one I want to camp on a bit. We get the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John fourteen twenty six, The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I've said to you. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, our guide, and our discernment. On the days when a lie feels completely true, when just one more sounds completely reasonable, the Holy Spirit is the internal warning light that goes off. He is the voice that says, wait. He is the discomfort that makes us pause. Romans 826 says, in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness, 2 Corinthians 12 9 says. I love that verse because it reminds me that it's not in my strength, it's in my weakness. The very place when we feel the most defeated is where God's power shows up the strongest in the Holy Spirit. So let's be practical. I don't want this to just be a good episode. I want This to change something in your week or even more in your life. So I've got a few tips for you. Tip number one, know what God's Word actually says. You cannot spot a counterfeit bill without knowing what the real thing looks like. And the same is true with lies. The more you know scripture, the faster you'll recognize when something contradicts it. Start with the book of John or start in the Psalms. Even ten minutes a day be helps you begin to build that foundation. Tip number two, when a lie surfaces, ask one question. Does this align with God's character as he reveals himself in Scripture? God is described in James 117 as the giver of every good and perfect gift. If this thought tells you that God caused your addiction, that God is against you, it fails that test. That's not the God of the Bible. Here's tip number three: replace the lie literally. Replace that lie. And sometimes do it out loud. Speak it. Romans 10.17 says faith comes from hearing the message. There is something powerful about speaking truth out loud. Philippians 4.13, I can do this through him who gives me strength. Or when the lie says God doesn't care about me, speak out loud. Romans 8.38. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. You are really taking that training and retraining your heart in the truth. Tip four, name the lie specifically and pray about it. Even better, pray against it. Don't just pray in general, be very specific. Lord, the lie I keep believing is blank. And fill in that blank. I renounce it. I replace it with scripture. I replace it with truth. I replace it with what you say and not what the enemy is telling me. I replace it from your word. Help me walk in that truth today. Tip number five, don't fight this fight alone. James five sixteen says confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Lies lose power when they are exposed to the light. Tell a trusted person, a friend, a pastor, a counselor, or your support group. The enemy works best in isolation, so don't give him that chance. In closing, the blame game is as old as the garden. But Jesus came to crush that serpent's head. That's what it says in Genesis 3.15. And the battle is already won. You just have to stop fighting on the wrong side and give it all to God. He's not the source of your captivity. He is the only source of your freedom. And I love to remind you that this isn't the end of your story. This is the beginning of your rescue. If something stirred in you today, don't blush, don't brush that off, please. That stirring is the Holy Spirit. And he is never random. Lean into it. If this episode has helped you, I encourage you to share it with a friend or someone who you know that needs to hear it. You never know. Your share could be the turning point that God uses in someone's life. I'd also love for you to keep in touch. Come find me on Instagram at Sarah Annie underscore author or on Facebook at facebook.com slash Sarah Annie Schneider or on YouTube. Just search for Sarah Annie Schneider at AddictedToGod. If your life has been genuinely transformed by Jesus, I sincerely want to share your story on this podcast. And it would be my honor if you would email me at addicted to Godpod at gmail.com. And until next time, please keep choosing the better addiction. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Bless you friends, and we will see you next week.