I need Jesus like an ocean needs water, land needs soil and plants need the sun! Without Him I have nothing but with Him, I have everything. Jesus declared and confirmed in John 15:5, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.”
We should rejoice in the fact that we serve a God of multiple chances. One thing that is true for everyone is that we’ve all failed God. We have all fallen short (Romans 3:23) and God is not obligated to forgive us, but He does anyway!
Throughout the Bible we see example after example of God giving people second chances, but for the focus of this devotional we will highlight one of the minor prophets.
The book of Jonah is a well known story about a prophet that refused to what God told him to do. God gave him a specific mission to tell the people of Nineveh to repent or be destroyed. But Jonah didn’t like Nineveh and wanted the people to experience God’s wrath and judgment. So Jonah ran away from God and ended up spending an all
inclusive 3 day/night stay inside the belly of a fish or as some theologians say, “The Whale’s Belly” (Jonah 1:17).
Still, God gave him a second chance! In Jonah 2 we find the Prophet praying and then shortly thereafter in verse 10 God kindly check’s him out of his amazing bed and breakfast stay.
After his wonderful aquatic stay, Jonah posted a 5 star Yelp and Google review, but not before he obeyed God’s command and completed the work that God originally called him to do.
Contrary to Jonah’s desire, Nineveh responded positively to God’s admonition (repented) and in Jonah 3:10, “He changed His mind and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened.”
Hence my point of encouragement, the only thing that beats failure is another chance.
I know this world is getting worse everyday to the point it may appear that evil is winning. However, I stopped by to encouraged each of you to not give up and don’t loose hope because our help is on the way!!
When David felt the jaws of life closing in he too declared in Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble!”
It is imperative that we focus on to pressing toward the goal and refuse to allow our past to define our present. In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul who had a spotty background opted for the latter i/l/o the former when he said, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
Moving forward toward the goal is a personal choice and it’s up to you to make that decision. Remember that in order to reach your goal, the first thing you want you to bear in mind is that you must keep your eyes fixed on Christ. If Peter could read this message, he would be the first to testify in the comment section below.
Paul had a vision and a goal ahead of him and he is letting us know that although he didn’t have it all together, he was diligently keeping his eyes on the prize!
Ecclesiastes 9:11 reminds us that “this race [life] is not for the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to the one who endures.” God wants us to keep on striving, keep on trying, and to keep on moving forward because He knows that’s where our greatest blessings reside!
After the resurrection Jesus summoned the disciples to meet Him at Galilee to give them His final instruction prior to His ascension, but check out how a few of the 11 responded. Matthew 28:16 says, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.”
“BUT SOME DOUBTED!”
You have to remember, these guys lived with Jesus, they soaked in His teaching, witnessed His miracles and have even seen Him resurrected. They talked, walked, slept, and ate with Jesus who just the day before was dead and now is alive. And some of them still doubted? Wow!
My brothers and sisters, if it’s OK for the disciples to be a little sceptical – and Matthew records it – it’s equally OK for you and me to be concerned or sceptical. It’s not a sin to have doubts, it’s just human. As someone once said: “Courage is not the complete absence of fear. Courage is doing the right thing even in the face of fear”. Faith is not the complete absence of doubt. Faith is trusting God in the presence of doubt – even when you don’t fully understand the who, what, why, when, where and how.
No matter what path we walk down, God is always one step ahead. Thankfully, the Lord goes before us and no matter what mountain we come up against, He has already climbed it. No matter what journey of uncertainty we encounter, God is 1,000 steps ahead of us. Even before the foundation of time, God laid out our path and authored our steps. He flattened the land and prepare each of our journeys and presently He’s uncovering our gold and laying it out for us.
My brothers and sisters, I know sometimes it appears that we tread through this world alone trying to make it, but this could not be further from the truth. We are always right next to God’s goodness. All of Psalm 139 is a great read but verse 5 really nails this brief word of encouragement; “You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head (NLT).
Bottom line and I repeat, God is always a 1,000 steps ahead of us, even when life makes us feel like we’ve been left behind, broken, and abandoned. Be it a struggling marriage or relationship, a financial trial that looks impossible to fix, a baby that never seems to come, an addiction you can’t seem to beat, a dream that never comes to fruition – no matter what, God is always a step ahead, working on your behalf both to will and do His good work (Philippians 2:13).
4GIVEN 