Lent Devotion

March 24

Second Chances

 

One of the interesting things to me about the leaders of the early church—men such as Peter and Paul—is that they each failed spiritually in huge ways. Peter was the impulsive one—always first to speak out, to boast, or to leap before he looked. Then, when Jesus needed him most, he denied even knowing Him.

 

Paul wasn’t as impetuous as Peter—he was more calm and calculating. But his mission as a Pharisee was to squash the movement of Christians that was growing throughout the area. And that included jailing and executing those who were followers of Christ.

 

And yet, God used these two men—with their dodgy past all of their failures—to be leaders in His church, doing amazing things for the Kingdom of God. And if you look back through Scripture, you see God using people with similar pasts as well. Moses was a murderer. Noah got drunk. Jacob was a liar. King David was an adulterer AND a murderer. Rahab was a prostitute. And the list goes on and on and on. But God forgave them, and used them to do amazing things for Him.

 

And the truth is, we’re all just as flawed as they were. We all need a second chance.

 

But on the cross Jesus provided the forgiveness for those sins and gave us hope that He could do great things through us, too.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone; the new has come.”

 

As you pray today, thank God that because of Christ, your past doesn’t have to determine your future.