What If . . .

What if you have really messed up? Messed up your life, made some really serious mistakes, hurt other people or hurt yourself?

You are normal.

We all mess up; we all make mistakes, some really big ones and some small ones.

When I first became a Christian, I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do. I had searched and listened and experimented with life. When I heard the Truth, that was it, nothing else seemed possible. Then the long road of trying to live the life as a Christian was facing me. I felt like I was in a different world.

I saw other Christians and thought how perfect they all looked. They said the right things and spoke in different terms than I was used to speaking. I can remember thinking I will never be as good as they are.

Each week I would go to services and go through the motions. My heart was in it, but being the mom of two little girls and working full time was hard. I loved Wednesday nights the most because it gave me a boost during the middle of the week to make it through the next 3 or 4 days. But I sinned. I always sinned. I used to beat myself up about how bad I was. That didn’t help, it just made it worse.

What I didn’t understand was God’s grace. It is His grace that saves us, not how good or bad we are. Yes, we are supposed to be “Christ like”, that is what being a Christian means. However, God understands that we are not perfect, cannot be perfect and will never be perfect. Only God’s Son, Jesus was perfect.

I’m a slow learner I guess because it took me many years to understand that no matter how hard I worked at it, I couldn’t work my way into heaven. I can never be good enough to earn Gods grace. He just gives it to me for the asking and obeying of His word.

So what happens when we sin? Is it a big sin, a little sin – it doesn’t matter. In God’s eyes sin is sin. There is no big or little sin, only we humans put tags on sin as being big or little. Some sins just have different consequences to them. Some you can see, some you can’t. If I have sex before marriage and the result is a pregnancy, everyone can see the consequences of that sin. If I steal a candy bar from the store, and I don’t get caught, no body knows about that except me and God. The sin carries the same weight with God.

Until I repent of that sin and start living in the light of His word I am separated from Him.

Life doesn’t end when we sin; it’s just another bump in the road of life. We sin; we ask for forgiveness and move on.

Please don’t think I am taking sin lightly, I’m not. However, sometimes I think we can get stuck in the sin cycle. When we don’t realize we can stop and start over. Starting over gives us a fresh start at life. We will always remember the sin, or may have the consequences of sin in our life, but that doesn’t define us.

 Review your life, repent of your sins and start fresh. God is always there for you no matter what time of day it is. Turn to Him.