Stop Using Ignorance As An Excuse

It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, so we’ve been told. Well, we have news for you ignorance is not bliss and God has something to say about it. 

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

When we lost everything we had, we had every excuse for why we were in our situation. The economy, lack of finances, people not doing what they said they would do, the world is changing, husband not acting right, wife not acting right, and the kids acting up. Do any of these excuses sound familiar? 

They may have been excuses, but because we were desperately seeking God for answers, and guidance, one day we read:

“If you [profess ignorance and] say, Behold, we did not know this, does not He Who weighs and ponders the heart perceive and consider it?
And He Who guards your life, does not He know it? And shall not He render to [you and] every man according to his works?” ~ Proverbs 24:12 (AMPC)

After reading this we sat back and thought to ourselves, how many times did we say; “I don’t know?” When deep down inside we pondered the pros and cons and then resulted to well, we’ll go ahead and do it and if asked, our response will be: “we didn’t know.”

Using Ignorance As An Excuse

Clearly that’s not what God expects from us. As we see in Proverbs 24:12 God already knows our heart and will render to us according to our works. We can’t use ignorance as an excuse for our misbehavior; all because we want what we want, without either waiting on God, or coming to the realization that we want something God doesn’t want us to have.

Sure, we may have done things right, but we knew there were many things we could have done better. And too many times we used ignorance as an excuse to get what we wanted.

Our Ignorance Story

When the real estate market was going well, we bought a nice 3200 square foot single-story home on a half-acre lot. It was brand new and we were responsible for putting up our own block wall with gates and landscaping. To cut cost, we hired one of the builder’s contractors on the side to put up our wall for less than if we went through the contractor directly.

One day, the contractor stopped by our house to ask who was putting up our gate. Of course, we weren’t going to lie, so we said that we had hired his worker. The owner was very understanding and said that was fine but we needed to get a permit. We went down to the city and purchased a permit. The clerk asked if the work has already been started. We paused, and said: “yes.” Then she proceeded to tell us that we weren’t supposed to start the work without a permit, and would have to pay a penalty.

Grace In Ignorance

Staring at the clerk, we sat there and said those famous words “we didn’t know.” Needless to say, they gave us a minor penalty and told us we couldn’t complete the wall until our permit was posted. That was just God’s grace over us for something we really didn’t deserve. We claimed ignorance for something we wanted, and in the end, it cost us more money.

In The End

Looking back, we realized there were many times we used ignorance to get what we wanted. However, God began to show us through His Word to wait on Him.

God knows our hearts, and it’s foolish to think we could get away with claiming such ignorance without Him knowing. You see, ignorance is not bliss. And it was that revelation that paved the way for us to stop using ignorance as excuse and make waiting on God a lifestyle!

~ André and Timberley Gray