Grace and Mercy

“Lord, help me to be the man that my family needs me to be.  Help me fix the messes that I caused in life and give me the peace that I need to be calm in faith, strong in mind, and resolve to stay connected in your word and adopted in the family of God”

How do we know that we serve a God of Grace and Mercy?  King David committed adultery and murder. Yet, what did God call him? “A man after His own heart” (1Samuel 13:14). Thankfully God gives us His word so we never have to guess what is Truth. We don’t have time for the evil one’s deceptive schemes and antics.  So what does the evil one want?  He wants us to fail because that way he can claim our family especially our children in the process so that he can steal two or three generations at once!

Lies of This World

The enemy wants us to live in the shame of our pasts. We are not defined by our sins, mistakes, mess ups, or even the sins against us for that matter no matter how large and egregious they were. The devil is a liar.  And so is anyone else who tries to shame us over our past.  Sadly, I have been guilty of that, shaming the person I loved the most. The evil one comes only to lie, steal and kill.  Jesus, on the other hand, came not to condemn, but to redeem and restore (John 3:17). To bring the lost sheep back into his fold. I wrote a blog earlier where I reference that Jesus said he’ll leave the 99 (the flock) just to go after the ONE sheep that is lost. My God is greater!   When we truly repent, our Father says He not only forgives our sins, but he no longer REMEMBERS them!! For we are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17)! We are His kids! God Is the perfect daddy who offers Forgiveness, Mercy, Grace, and unconditional LOVE.

The Consequences

I remember being admitted to the ER and when asked who was my Emergency contact, after 18+ years i wasn’t able to give her my wife’s info.  What about waking up after a surgery from my internal bleeding recently, asking for my family.  The nurses awkwardly replied “maybe they will meet you back at your room”.  I was the only patient who didn’t have someone meet them at surgery and wait for them to come out.   I had attorneys, friends, pastors, new neighbors who barely knew me check in on me, but not those who were the closest in my life.  While that was tough, the nearly 4 months alone every single night in my bed and in my rental house was 1,000 times worse. Going from a loud noisy house of 6 where you made breakfast and got the kids off to school everyday and heard them cry to not go to bed every night, it was akin to torture.  In life, there are consequences for our actions decisions and words and I got what I deserved.  We cannot go back and change the past, but I assure you that Jesus will change you more than you ever thought possible if you just ask. You may never be able to convince some of those around you or that have left you that you are capable of this kind of change, but you owe it to yourself and those that do still love you to do the hard work.

You must submit yourself entirely.  Give every single sin that you have committed over to God and ask him to not only forgive you for them, but to use those sins and these consequences to further His kingdom and watch what the Lord can do with that!  In the past when faced with similar instances, I never fully gave my entire life over to God as well as never fully repenting for all my sins.  How silly is that to not repent for something that God already knows you did.  This made it impossible for God to use me in His work as well as impossible to forgive.  This state is known as the devil’s playground where he rules and plunders your entire life and sifts your family like wheat (Luke 22:31).  The idea that the evil one gets to have his way with my children because I left the door wide open is unacceptable to me.  You need to resolve to ask for forgiveness (John 3:16), beg God for mercy and Grace (2 John 1:3) and stand strong in the name of God in the face of all accusers and those who choose to do you wrong (Ephesians 6:10-20).  Eventually God will lead you through the consequences (1 Peter5:10) and deliver you to the other side holy and blameless (Jeremiah 29:11) if you keep his word and live by faith!

In summary, we are washed clean by the grace of God and in his mercy we are forgiven.  As for me and my family….. we will serve the Lord our God fully equipped in the full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20)! Away from me and my family Satan!