When we try to justify ourselves (regardless of the situation), it usually leads to making excuses. Excuses are always at the opposite spectrum of responsibility. Excuses have a long-term effect in that it involves blaming others, and therefore hinders relationships by developing a mistrust on your part to do right. Having a lifestyle of giving excuses for our behavior keeps us in the circle of repeating the sin. Making excuses for our faults keeps us on the edge of living in failure and is attached to every area of our lives.

Proverbs 28:13 tells us that, whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy (NIV). To conceal somethings means to keep secret or hidden. A person who makes excuses is a person giving into the root of the spirit of fear, the fear of rejection; the fear of failure; and the fear of mankind, etc. Also, making an excuse really falls into the area of telling lies because an excuse is not truth and therefore it is a lie.

Because excuse’s baseline are lies and not truth, they block God’s power to change us. Whereas repentance is the submission of our will and knowledge to God and enables us to receive His forgiveness and cleansing, as mentioned in First John 1:9. Only God, through Jesus Christ, can give us the justification we need. It is true repentance that breaks the “excuse” cycle and gives us the opportunity to change.

Learning to speak the truth in love, and stop lying with excuses, grows us up into the likeness of Jesus (Ephesians 4:15, 25). Psalm 15:2 teaches that a person who speaks truth also walks uprightly and works righteousness. The word righteousness in the Bible carries two ideas of thought: righteousness as a position as a child of God; and righteousness in how and what we do.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we understand our position as a child of God; a son or daughter in the family of God. We also know that it is wise to live according to that position to bring glory to God – in other words to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossian 1:10). Another encouraging scripture is found in Ephesians 5:1 where we are told to be followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us.

Don’t exalt your thoughts against God, be truthful and honest in all you think, say, and do. If you have a habit of making excuses, go to God and repent, He is faithful to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then make the decision to forget what is behind (under the Blood of Jesus) and press forward, reaching for the prize in the calling of God in Christ Jesus and endeavor to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for your life (Philippians 3:13-14).