application of first few chapters of bible.

While often the Bible shapes what we learn, sometimes what we gleam from the scriptures is a product of what the Spirit has already been teaching us. Recently I have been searching for specific sins in my life I can confess to God and others around me. As I have sought this in prayer and conversation w/ others I have realized my tendency to make excuses for sin. I justify my actions. To a certain extent analyzing actions and understanding why you acted in a certain way or said a certain thing is a good. But to an extreme only leads to a justification of sin. And if sin is justified there is not a true repentant heart, and if a true repentant heart is lacking than authentic change will not occur (II Corinthians 6:10).
As I read chapter 3 of Genesis I saw how Adam tried to place the blame upon Eve. God asks Adam if he had eaten from the fruit, and he confesses but he says it was because Eve had given it to him. He didn’t deal rightly with his mistake. He wasn’t accepting the full responsibility of his action, and trying to place part of the blame upon Eve. Even though he was explaining what happened it seems as if Adam was trying to justify why he ate the forbidden fruit. He didn’t deal rightly with sin.
This idea comes up again with the story of Cain and Abel. God didn’t accept Cain’s sacrifice of his produce and this upset Cain. However, God told Cain in verse 7 of chapter 4 that the sacrifice would be accepted if he responded in the right way to the situation. (Obviously the slaying of his brother was the wrong response).
All of the above is mentioned to set up the application I gleamed from this passage. Basically I was challenged to deal rightly with sin in my life. How do I respond to sin? Do I accept fault? Or do I seek to justify and blame others? My desire is to deal rightly with sin. I don’t want to sit and analyze a certain action, but to quickly admit the wrong and seek to deal rightly with the consequence. This next week I want to be aware of this tendency and to identify times when I am tempted to not accept the responsibility for my actions. I will not justify my sin, but confess and admit the reality of my heart.