PSALM 71:19-21 – Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? 20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. 21 You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.
THEME OF THE DAY. THE GOD OF MANY CHANCES. Three times it appears. Three times the Psalmist proclaims God’s repeated work in his life – “you will revive me again, you will bring me up again, you will comfort me again.”
Ever feel so broken over your many failings of the Lord; your many backslidings from the Lord; and the seemingly endless times of falling into the same sin against the Lord, and be tempted to say, “Lord, will You forgive me still yet another time? Is Your grace ready to restore me again?”
The devil will tempt us to doubt God’s readiness to bring reviving grace into our lives after our umpteenth time of failing Him. He will whisper, “God has grown weary of you trying His patience and failing Him. He won’t forgive you anymore.”
And when it comes to people? Too often when people fail us, or maybe we fail people, forgiveness may be extended one time, two times, maybe even a lot of times, but if the hurt is deep and over a long period of time, the point might be reached of saying, “Enough. I cannot forgive anymore. I am out of grace. I am done.” I hope we are never on the giving end of this reluctance to forgive anything toward anyone. It will make us so much not like our Lord Jesus.
Remember, when it comes to the grace of forgiveness, it is people, not God, who put quotas, limits, and conditions upon forgiveness. God never says, “I am weary of your many times of failing me. I cannot endure your failures anymore. No more grace.” Our God is the God, not of second chances, but of endless chances given to His repenting and growing children. In today’s scripture, the Psalmist is overjoyed with the truth of God being the God who comes again, again, and again with reviving grace, uplifting grace, and comforting grace. And this God is also our God. He will do the same for us. He remembers that we are but dust (Psalms 103:14). He knows we fail and fall, yet, He remains the same. He remains the God of all grace, all the time. But that does not mean we presume upon His grace. If we know the Lord as the God of many chances, it doesn’t produce a loose life of sin and worldliness. Should we find ourselves continuing in the same lifestyle of allowing, even practicing sinful actions and attitudes, but think we may just run to God, confess our sins and claim the promise of 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we know nothing of saving and forgiving grace. When we realize how gracious and patient God is with us in our many times of falling short of His glory, we grow in His grace and sin less, not become sinless, but truly see our lives sinning less.
Our God is the God of many chances. He endures much from His children but always stands ready to bring the power of restoring grace into our lives. Let that be the motivator to come to Him boldly in repentance and confession knowing we will be met by the God who is indeed the God of many chances.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for Your grace that comes to me again, again, and again; never to end.”
QUOTE: “As God deals with us with grace again and again, we are to do likewise with other people.”