A Second Chance

Okay, so maybe it's just me who is just now getting this revelation. I was reading to Sam out of his Jesus Story book Bible this morning. It's a great book with all the stories in the Bible from the beginning to the end kid style and wording...it's fun! Anyway this morning Sam and I were reading out of Genesis, the story of Creation. And it dawned on me. We spend so much time using Adam and Eve's sin to justify why our world isn't perfect. Why there is everything bad under the sun. Sickness and disease. We say, " Well, we live in a fallen world and that's just the consequence of our sin or how sin originated." I've said it too.

What struck me this morning was that, yes, we do live in a fallen world, but God, in His amazing love and mercy gave a second chance named Jesus. Hello! He said, " You know what, Adam and Eve didn't do so well, but I love my people so much and so here is my very own Son/My Word in flesh, that I will send to redeem you from sin. Who will bear all of your sickness and disease and who will DIE for your sin so that you can live in freedom like I intended from the very start."

1 John 4:10, " THIS IS LOVE: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

His Son was the Word in flesh. Psalm 107:20, " He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered from their destruction." He sent His Son/His Word to redeem and heal us and save us from this fallen world that we seem to give more glory to than Him.

Don't you see? Yeah, we live in a fallen world, but we just live in it, we are not of it. God gave us a second chance to not fall into temptation and we throw it back in His face every time we sin or cast away all the promises that He clearly laid out for us. We grieve Him when we don't trust Him. He sacrificed a lot for us to have a chance to live that life that He originally intended for us. And no, God isn't a conditional God, He still loves us unconditionally even when we don't trust Him or walk with Him like we should. But He loves us so much that I really do believe He gets disappointed like a parent with a child. For example, Parker with potty training...when Parker has an accident, I don't stop loving him because he messed up, but I get disappointed because I know he can do better. I get disappointed because I have done everything that I know to do to set him up for a win in this area.

Same thing with us and God. He has set us up for a win in this world by giving us His living and active Word. When we don't use it, I believe it grieves His Spirit because He loves us so much.

I think I will take that second chance, that do-over by walking out that living Word and staying in constant relationship with Him. I'm not ashamed of that, I need a second chance and here again, God is showing me how much He really loves me.