What's Your Excuse?

We've all offered an excuse for something before, and I've heard my fair share of them as well.  Just recently, I was planning a visit to a neighboring town for my business.  I had planned to visit all my clients in that town on one day, delivering product and just visiting.  What started out as an entire day planned to visit about 20, ended up being an enjoyable visit with 2.  Excuses were varied and interesting.  One said "I excercise on Saturdays" and I wondered if she spent all 24 hours of each Saturday exercising?  Another said, "I'm taking down my Christmas decorations".  Now, this was already February when we spoke and I couldn't imagine what difference 30 minutes could make in a task that was already several weeks old!

As I thought about these strange excuses, I couldn't help but remember a song I had heard a gospel quartet sing.    "Excuses, excuses, you'll hear them everyday, and the devil he'll supply them, if the church you stay away, when people come to know the Lord, the devil always loses, so to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses."  How many times do we offer up an excuse for something we just do not want to do?  Whether it be missing a gospel meeting, not teaching a Bible class or just not attending worship, what is our excuse really saying?

Matthew 5:37 says "But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No' be 'No'.  For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."  I believe we offer excuses because we don't want to hurt someone's feelings, or maybe we don't want to share the real reason we are saying no.  However look at the second part of that verse - where is our excuse from?  Satan was giving excuses to us from the beginning (Genesis 3:10, 12, 13).  

Next time you're tempted to offer an excuse, think about what it is you really want to say and why and also, where that excuse is really from.