I have a smart phone. I also have a dumb knife.

My smart phone can do many things in addition to being a telephone. It can tell me the current temperature in my community. It can give me the weather forecast. It can give me directions to where I am going. It can wake me up in the morning. It can let me know when my hard-boiled egg should be ready. It can do a hundred other things, I am sure. That’s why it is called a smart phone.

But I also have a dumb knife. It can’t tell the difference between my finger and the potato I was cutting up. Don’t blame me for the cut on my finger. It was the knife that did it. Not me. Nope. It is all the knife’s fault. Dumb knife.

Sounds rather silly, doesn’t it. Of course, the cut on my finger was my own careless doing. How foolish sounding it is to listen to me trying to blame the knife. But think of this. Have you ever listened to someone who would not accept the responsibility for their actions as they try to blame others for the problem?

That’s one of the things that I love about the book of Nehemiah. What a powerful blessing to listen to him speak to the Lord about taking his responsibility for sinning seriously. Then tomorrow watch how Nehemiah personally accepts the responsibility of being part of the solution to the problem.

For today we see Nehemiah being the cupbearer to the powerful king far, far from his homeland, Israel. It is ultimately the sinfulness of the people that brought them to captivity in a foreign land. Nehemiah didn’t excuse it and blame the captors for being wicked. After hearing of the state of the broken walls in Jerusalem, listen to his prayer of confession to the Lord.

“And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of Heaven, And said, I beseech Thee, O LORD God of Heaven, the great and terrible” (The KJV word “terrible” is actually our word “awesome!”) “God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments: Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned” (Nehemiah 1:4-6).

The knife isn’t to blame. I am.
The knife didn’t make me cut myself. I carelessly did it on my own.
The situations around me and people near don’t make me sin. I sin on my own.

Wise folks accept personal responsibility for their actions. It is not making excuses. It is not blaming others. It is agreeing with the Lord about my sin and how to deal with it (1 John 1:9).