“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

I can safely say that we have each made tons of mistakes throughout our lives. What differentiates us is what we do with the mistakes. Some of us beat up on ourselves for a while then move on. Many of us chastise ourselves repeatedly and literally never recover. Some others of us stop ‘take stock of ourselves’, repent and move on. Then there are those of us who make the same mistakes over and over again and never seem to get out of the cycle. God’s word tells us in Romans 8:28 “…God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them,” that includes every mistake that we have made or ever will make. Mistakes can be placed into two simple categories sin and non-sin. Sin separates us from God, so when our mistakes are sin we must repent and do as Hebrews 4:16 tells us to: “…come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most…”

It is amazing how we selectively believe God’s word. We readily believe and accept those scripture verses that speak about the punishments for sin, and we ingrain them in our hearts, but we often have a hard time accepting with the same fervor, those scriptures that speak of how much God loves us, readily forgives us, and desires to bless us and bathe us in His grace.

Grace is what balances the scale whenever we fail God. Grace is often defined as ‘undeserved favor’ and I totally agree with that definition, because I know that I am here today, and I‘ve been blessed with the opportunity to publish this newsletter, only because of God’s grace.

According to grace, our righteousness is not a result of what we do, but what Christ did on the cross of Calvary. In order to truly grasp the depth of God’s grace, we must first look at Calvary: God went through all the trouble of sending His only Son to this earth to die on a cross so that we could be redeemed (bought back and made acceptable to God), it just doesn’t make sense to think that the same God will desire that we fumble around in our sin, or that He will sit in heaven with a baseball bat waiting for us to fail Him so that He could clunk us on the head and reiterate what failures we are.

Sadly though, this is how we often view our Heavenly Father, and although we may not admit it, it is evidenced by the way we treat fellow believers when they stumble. If we really comprehend the extent to which God really loves us, we would recognize how much it breaks His heart when we sin, and that He runs to us to ’dust us off, clean us up’ and restore us to Himself. God’s main focus is restoration, therefore our main focus should also be restoration.

One of Satan’s strategies is to get us to live in condemnation, in complete opposition to God’s word in Romans 8:1, “…those who belong to Christ are free from condemnation”. This doesn’t give us a license to sin as Paul says in Romans 6:1-2, “of course we should not keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His amazing grace…” When we live in condemnation we often shy away from God’s presence, at the time that we need Him the most. In addition, we isolate ourselves and fail to seek the help that we need from our brothers and sisters in the Lord. The devil knows that once we are isolated and away from our support system, we become easy targets, so instead of playing into his hands, we need to bury our guilt and pride, difficult though it may be, and run to our Heavenly Father and ask for help. It is also sometimes necessary to go to a fellow believer who we can trust and be accountable to, and ask for help. We also need to be approachable and trustworthy, so that others can feel comfortable coming to us when they need a confidant.

For those who seem stuck in the cycle of repeating the same sin over, and over, and over again, we must first recognize that we are incapable of breaking the cycle in our own strength. God’s word tells us in Isaiah 64:6 that “…our righteousness is like filthy rags….” We could never do sufficient penance to erase our sin, and when we try to punish ourselves we, nullify the work of the cross of Calvary. God knew that in our fallen state we would need a Savior, and after Christ returned to Heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit because He knew that we would need a guide and counselor. God also said in 1John 1:19 “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness (unrighteousness)”. He would have never made that provision if He thought that we were capable of doing it on our own. So to break the cycle, “run to the throne of grace…” (Hebrews 4:16), and repent, then ask God for the strength to break the cycle. “He will hear and deliver you”, as he promised in Psalm 50:15. Breaking the cycle of sin sometimes requires that we change situations, friends, or even jobs and locations. To avoid sin sometimes the best thing to do is run like Joseph did when he was accosted by Potiphar’s wife. Running is usually considered to be an act of cowardice, but when it comes to avoiding sin, it is actually an act of wisdom and obedience, because we are  instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 to “flee (run away from) the very appearance of evil…“  

Adversities that we face in life, as well as mistakes that we make, should serve as life lessons that help us to grow and become more mature women of God. They are also opportunities to gather wisdom gained from experience, which can be imparted to others, to either prevent them from having to experience the same heartache that we faced or help them as they walk through it. Remember that GOD LOVES YOU and has a purpose for your life, and that “…God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them,” yes even that thing… So stop, repent, ask God to show you the lesson that you need to learn, and to give you the patience to learn it and grow from it. Ask Him also to give you the opportunity to teach it to someone else.

Originally published on August 15th, 2007