Have you ever noticed all the things where God gets the blame? Maybe it is a tired phrase, but we keep throwing God under the bus. There are a lot of ways we do it. Here are a few of the more common ways.

Blaming God for killing or hurting people:

From The Independent -Americas “A Texas woman who stoned two of her children to death and seriously injured a third on Mother’s Day last year told psychiatrists she was driven to kill by a message from God and that she was sure they would rise again from the dead.”

From MSNBC.com “A man who rammed his truck into a woman’s vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him “she needed to be taken off the road.”

• “Hey God, are you okay? That looked painful.”

Blaming God to avoid sounding unspiritual: This happened a lot at Bible College. A student would come into the Dean of Students office and say something like “God is telling me to quit school…” which was a way of saying a number of things. Maybe they were saying they were overwhelmed and wanted to quit. Regardless of the reason, it was easier to blame God or Jesus and sound spiritual than to be a quitter and maybe thought of as lacking faith.

• “God, while your under there would you check to make sure the oil pan is okay? I hit a bump and thought it might have gotten scraped. Thanks!”

Blaming God for an extramarital affair: A couple of years ago, a guy threw God under the bus with this one. He said, “I’ve finally found the person God wanted me to marry.” He didn’t smirk or giggle after saying this. There were no cameras around. Ashton Kutcher didn’t run out to tell me I’d been Punk’d. He said it and he meant it.

• “Don’t get up. I’m going to put this thing in reverse.”

Blaming God to give weight to our opinions: God’s prophets aren’t just on the radio and television. They are in your church, too. These prophetic utterances usually begin with “God told me to tell you…” or, “Jesus wants me to tell you…” and then we get to hear about the things they don’t like or disagree with us about.

• “God, I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.”

Here are some thoughts to consider next time you have the urge to blame God.

1. Do your thoughts, words, and actions look like Jesus?
2. Are you trying to spiritualize your opinion to give it weight?
3. If you’re not sure, would you be willing to earnestly pray for God to reveal your motives?
4. If something needs saying, pray for the wisdom and courage to deal with the problem in a Christ-like way.

I think it is time we quit throwing God under the bus. What do you think?