Second Chance: God Reveals our Savior
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with a Second Chance”.
Remember stereograms?
You know those pictures that looked like a random set of patterns but you were told “If you stare at it long enough, you will see it.” So you stare and stare and nothing happens. You think the person is crazy as they describe the picture. You think you are being duped for a filming of candid camera. (Here try one https://fineartamerica.com/featured/jumping-dolphin-stereogram-jmarp.html).
Usually to be able to “see” the picture embedded in the seeming randomness of what you were looking at, you were told to “look through” the image and focus behind the surface of the two dimensional paper. All of a sudden the 3D image appears and you “see” what you were supposed to see.
It’s pretty cool when you see what the artist intended. You realize how amazing the picture is, but when you can’t see it, it seems like a random pattern of little to no art value.
Not seeing the image was frustrating. Staring for what seemed like forever led me to give up hope that I could ever see what was there. Then the way to see it was revealed.
These images are like our spiritual condition. We try to make sense out of what looks like the randomness of life. People talk about faith and hope and a relationship with Jesus. But this can seem like looking a random set of colors and trying to see anything of consequence.
The Apostle Paul put it this way:
2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
The “god of this age” blinds us to what God wants us to see. In fact the god of this age has eliminated God from our cultural discussion. So what is left? We seek to find direction in “science.” We seek to find morality in the majority. We seek to find answers to cultural problems in “woke” ideologies. We look to the government for solutions and see religion as the problem. Church has been made the bad guy with scandals among leaders or to strict and non-inclusive tenets. The list could go on.
Satan loves to distort, bend and blind the hearts and minds of people to think there is truth where there is none to be found. People hinge their hope and future on one thing only to have that foundation rocked when it is found to be false. Hopelessness comes when everything I think I can count on is completely undependable.
Until someone shares the clue to seeing the meaning and purpose of life. “God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
God gives us a second chance at life and our perspective of it when he reveals Christ to us. We begin to find answers to our purpose in life, our significance and value, and most of all our soul finds rest in grace and the promise of eternity. God shows us where hope and peace are to be found in the forgiveness Jesus offers.
All of a sudden we can see what God wants us to see. The blindness of the world is overcome by the light of Christ.
Apply: The god of this age loves to skew our understanding of life, relationships, faith and much more. What area is clouded by the world’s thinking? Take time to search the Bible for the truth and answers. Don’t let Satan steal the glorious things God reveals by his Light!
Prayer: Lord thank you for opening my eyes of faith to see all the amazing things you have given and prepared for me! AMEN.
Second Chances: God Restores Our Soul!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with a Second Chance”.
Life can be difficult and wear us out.
Perhaps unlike any other stretch the last 12 months have taken their toll on us, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
The uncertainty of COVID, the unrest in our country and the divisiveness of elections challenge even the strongest. 2021 has been different, but similar issues still exist. COVID still haunts us. Racial unrest persists and political divide widens.
We look for an escape…or at least a reprieve. Something to refresh our soul, to clear our mind, and give rest to our bodies.
Nothing wrong with a much needed vacation, a glass of wine or a movie to escape.
But its temporary and the challenges of the day face us in the morning.
They aren’t going away (this side of heaven). But there is a place to turn to find rest, inner peace and lasting serenity. Where is it? With our Savior Jesus.
Jesus said it this way: Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
A yoke tied two oxen together to pull at greater strength than each one could individually. Jesus is inviting us to yoke up with him and allow him to pull the weight with us.
What can wear us down is if we try to pull the weight of life alone. We try to figure everything out. We have to have every answer. We carry the regret of the past and the worry of the future. We feel responsible for all the world’s issues. We let Satan burden us with guilt of our past…and the list goes on.
Peter put in this way: Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
The only place to find refreshment is to bring all that wearies you and burdens you and put it on Jesus’ shoulders. Let him carry it for you or with you.
Does that mean all the problems will go away and we will never have another challenge? No, but it means you have the power of God, the presence of God and the peace of God all on your side. So when the next issue, challenge or stressor comes. Take a moment to take it to the Lord in prayer, ask for what you need (his power, wisdom, peace, etc.) and then move forward with your heart at peace and your soul refreshed.
Apply: Perhaps copy and print this to look at every day:
May God Be…
Above you to Bless You;
Below you to Support You;
Before you to Guide You;
Behind you to Protect you;
Beside you to Comfort You and
Inside you to Give You Strength and Joy.
Prayer: “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”
1 What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!
2 Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer!
3 Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge–
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield you;
you will find a solace there.
Second Chances: God Removes our Sin
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with a Second Chance”.
“Take it outside!”
What started as a desire for a bag of buttery, tasty popcorn turned into a stinking, about to start on fire, bag of charred popcorn.
If it’s happened to you, you know the smell. You know how hours later you can still smell the reality of a bag of popcorn gone awry.
Some things we just can’t get away from us soon enough. A bag of popcorn is mild. Sometimes we want to get away from our past, get away from a bad relationship, and sometimes get away from God himself.
We run from what we are ashamed of. We hide what we don’t want people to see. We avoid those whom we’ve wronged. It’s natural to want to separate from that which you’re embarrassed by and wish never happened.
Our relationship with God can be challenging when we directly or subconsciously know we have done something that is wrong. We may not always know what it is, but we can feel it. It gets in the way of our relationship. It hinders our prayers. It keeps us from coming to church.
Because we think God is angry at us. Or we think we will just avoid or discount the reality of God and it won’t matter what we think or do. We think we are no longer accountable for our actions, if we avoid the one to whom we are accountable.
God does hate sin. God does say he will punish those that disobey him. Even if we ignore these warnings and try to avoid God, we can’t. We will have to face God for our actions.
Where’s the hope in that? Nowhere. That’s why God invites us to repent, to think differently and to turn to God.
Why would I turn to the one I think is out to get me?
Because you are missing who God is. Psalm 103:8 and following clarify for us:
Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Reread that again. Soak it in.
What God’s mercy does for each of us is remove the stink of our sin so we don’t have to smell it or live with it any longer. He does not treat us as our sins deserve and does not harbor his anger forever.
These are amazing promises to remember when Satan tries to get us to remember, regret, and run from our past sin. Instead of running from them, run with them to your loving Savior.
He removes your sin.
Apply: What sins of the past or present are bothering you. Confess them and then let this word of Psalm 103 remind you of what God does with those sins…removes them and covers them with his grace.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace and compassion and your willingness to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. AMEN.
Second Chances: God Redeems Our Regrets
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with a Second Chance”.
Regret.
In the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. At the time, it seemed like I had to do what my friends were doing. At the time, I didn’t realize it would make this much of a difference.
We all have events in our past that we look back and wish we could do over again. Perhaps it was a season of drinking. Perhaps it was a poor choice of relationships. Perhaps it was a pregnancy that happened all too early. Perhaps it was a moment of desperation.
You know what it was for you.
That event or events we look back and regret ever happened.
When our hearts and minds are reoriented toward the Lord, it’s much more clear the sin we committed in the past and the consequences that we perhaps still live in the present.
We wish we could go back in time and change what happened.
But we can’t.
But God can change the present by redeeming the past. What do I mean?
In this week’s message, (Click link above to listen to the whole thing) we connected with Peter and John who were given power to heal a man crippled from birth and then an opportunity to speak to a growing crowd about their spiritual condition. Here’s what Peter said:
Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
But Peter also acknowledges:
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
Were they off the hook? No. Ignorance is not bliss or an excuse. It simply means you didn’t fully know what you were doing. (Any of your regrets of the past fit into this category?) What they did was still wrong.
God doesn’t want them to live in a state of regret. He wants them to live in a state of repentance. Repentance is having your mind changed by God’s Spirit to see life and faith from God’s perspective of truth.
Here’s the amazing thing God does. He redeems the past to make it a blessing in our present:
Acts 3:18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.
God used their ignorance and sin to fulfill what he foretold through all the prophets Jesus would do.
Does that excuse the sin of the past? No, it just reminds us of how gracious God is.
So instead of living in regret, live in repentance. What has God taught you or now enabled you to do for him because of your past sins, ignorance, or bad choices? God will redeem the past as he gives us opportunity to see it now from his perspective and use it as a springboard to serve him in a renewed way in the present.
Apply: Take time to reflect on an event from the past that you regret being part of. What is the lesson God taught you through it and how can what you experienced now be a blessing to you and others?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for redeeming the sin of my past with the blood of Jesus. Thank you also for redeeming my past by allowing it to be part of the blessing of the present. Help me to always live in repentance with a clear understanding of your Word and your ways. AMEN.
Second Chances: We All Need Them!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with a Second Chance”.
At some point every person needs a second chance, a “do over,” … a “Mulligan.”
Life is filled with stories of second chances. You have one as well. It may have been as simple as a teacher giving you an opportunity to redo a test you failed or as significant as overcoming an addiction or a life of crime.
Second chance stories are inspirational and motivational. But for every story of second chance and dramatic change, is perhaps a story of a second chance that failed.
What makes a second chance so amazing? Many second chances come because someone sees potential in me that I’ve missed seeing in myself. Someone sees that I can do better or be better than I currently am. Someone sees that it is possible and probable that I can change given the right opportunity and information. So they are willing to invest in giving me a second chance.
But even if someone does invest in me, what will make a second chance successful? Second chances turn out well when an individual is able to reflect and evaluate what went wrong at the first attempt. When I can recognize and make the needed changes in my thinking and activity, I increase the potential for a positive outcome. If I don’t change my thinking or learn from my mistakes, a second chance will lose its value. The change must happen within first. It involves a change of heart and mind to set up what develops into different actions and behaviors. False believes have to be replaced with truth.
Second chances bring hope. They renew an outlook on life that brings stronger optimism and joy to life.
We’re not just talking about second chance stories of hope and change, but the second chance stories that happen when God’s Spirit reorients our life and our heart to the Lord and his Word.
Titus puts it this way: (3:3-7)
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
The second chance as God turns us from sin and selfishness to him and trust and faith is amazing. The difference is incredible. The impact is large and the blessing is manifold.
Jesus loves you and wants you in heaven. He has done everything to overcome what sin wrecked, so you might have life with him…now and for eternity. This week we are going to unpack the blessing of a second chance God has given to you!
Apply: Consider some of the second chances in life God has given to you. What has he taught you through them?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the second chance your grace gives to me to live for you and with you. AMEN.