The God Of Second Chances
Do you feel as though you've made a mess out of your life? This
week's message is entitled "The God of Second Chances," so I hope
you'll read carefully because you will be encouraged to see how
God can salvage a messed-up life for His glory.
You see, I really blew it big time, after much Bible teaching and
knowledge, I chose to put God on the back seat of my life this
past October 4th and went off to do my own thing, as we say. And
for 5 months... I walked away from my commitment to the Lord and
lived a life that brought no glory to God and damaged my testimony
for Jesus. The details are not important the situation that was
meant for evil, turned out for good. It let me get closer to God
than ever....study, pray and fast more than
ever. I fell in love with Jesus, my family and my church family
more than ever.......
So as you read, you should be reminded that we serve the God of
second chances. Sometimes I think maybe that's one major reason
God has chosen to bless me with this ministry–to demonstrate that
He is this gracious God of second chances. I am living proof that
God's plan "B" can be meaningful, exciting, and fulfilling, for
even though I made a thorough mess of plan "A" for my life, He has
miraculously salvaged me.
All of us have to have second chances. Every one of us has blown
it in some way or another, and if we didn't have a God of second
chances, we'd all be doomed. How many times have you asked God to
forgive you for the same sin? Maybe you even wonder if He will
forgive you again, but let me assure you, He will. He knows our
frame and remembers that we are dust, and so He gives us many
second chances.
That, of course, does not mean that we will not have to suffer the
consequences of our sin. Sin always brings its aftermath and God
doesn't always deliver us from that. But He does deliver us from
guilt and He does allow us to start over again with a clean
slate–a second chance.
While we should never be pleased that we need a second chance, it
is so wonderful to know that our God doesn't give up on us.
Remember that today. Trust God for the second chance that you
need. God extends His grace to all of us again and again and gives
us second chances. Oh, am I thankful for that, because I so often
need a second chance, how about you?
But you know, sometimes we are very reluctant to give others a
second chance, even though we've received them from God. Jesus
told the parable of the unmerciful servant, who asked the king to
forgive him for the ten thousand talents he owed. He could never
pay that huge debt, so in marvelous grace, the king agrees to
forgive the debt–gives him a second chance. And what does he do?
He turns around and demands that a small debt owed to him be paid
immediately, and when his fellow servant can't
come up with the money right away, he has him thrown into prison.
Jesus was well aware of our tendency to accept His grace and take
all the second chances we can get for ourselves, but to be very
stingy in the way we deal with others.
Is there someone you've been tough on, when God wants you to give
them a second chance and simply return some of the grace that has
been extended to you?
In this parable of the unmerciful servant found in Matthew 18,
Jesus teaches us that if we aren't willing to give others a second
chance and be merciful to them as He has been to us, then He will
withdraw from us the grace and second chance that we so desire and
need.
Read that story again. It's a powerful challenge to be a forgiving
and merciful person.
Being merciful means you forgive someone a debt they truly owe.
They deserve to pay the debt, but you let them off the hook. Have
you done that lately, or have you been sticking it to someone,
judging them for their failures and refusing to let them up off
the floor? If you and I want to know God's blessing in our lives,
we must give others a second chance.
I hope you'll live in the glory of the truth that we have a God of
Second Chances, because if you don't need a second chance right
now, you will soon. And I trust you'll be willing to give others
that same second chance. Remember, love suffers long; it keeps no
records of the wrong done to it; love always hopes and always
gives second chances.
Patrick Conaty
Get Real! Get God! Get Radical!
www.radicalforgod.org--click on my testimony
