What it means to accept personal responsibility

Dear brothers and sisters, I greet you today in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

It is no secret that God delights in your success and fulfillment in life. However, this will never happen unless you accept some responsibility for your life. Today I want us to briefly look at what it means to accept personal responsibility.
If you can remember, yesterday we talked about the fact that what defiles a person is not what is done to him, but his personal reaction to that. In the following Scripture we saw that neither the man nor the woman were willing to take personal responsibility for their actions.

„The man said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.» Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (GEN 3:12-13)

In other words, these people are saying that they are not really responsible for what they ate. Someone else is responsible for that. They said that because they did not understand what it means to take personal responsibility.

Accepting personal responsibility includes:

• Acknowledging that you are solely responsible for the choices in your life.
• Accepting that you are responsible for what you choose to feel or think.
• Accepting that you are the one who chooses the direction for your life.
• Accepting that you cannot blame others for the choices you have made.
• Removing the mask of defense or rationale for why others are responsible for who you are, what has happened to you, and what you are bound to become.
• Pointing the finger of responsibility back to yourself and away from others when you are discussing the consequences of your actions.
• Realizing that you determine your feelings about any events or actions addressed to you, no matter how negative they seem.
• Recognizing that you are your best cheerleader; it is not reasonable or healthy for you to depend on others to make you feel good about yourself.
• Not feeling sorry for the how worthless or useless you have been treated in life but taking hold of your life and giving it direction and reason.
• Letting go of your sense of over responsibility for others.
• Protecting and nurturing your health and emotional well being.
• Taking an honest inventory of your strengths, abilities, talents, virtues, and positive points.
• Developing positive, self-affirming, self-talk scripts to enhance your personal development and growth.
• Letting go of blame and anger toward those in your past who did the best they could, given the limitations of their knowledge, background, and awareness.
• Working out anger, hostility, pessimism, and depression over past hurts, pains, abuse, mistreatment, and misdirection.

God’s word for you today is this: are you accepting personal responsibility for your life, or are you still rolling the responsibility for your life onto others?

Before you point the finger of blame at others next time, remember that your attitude and your actions are your total responsibility. No one but you is responsible for your words, your thoughts, and your actions.

I wish you a blessed day!
Pastor Rufus Ajiboye