GraceFox

 As a writer who interviews people from many different backgrounds, I find it fascinating to see how God grants second chances. One fellow – a former police officer – told me how he’d run into major financial problems and tried to solve them by robbing banks. He was caught, spent time in prison, and lost his marriage over the fiasco. But through it all, he found Christ’s forgiveness and hope. Now he’s helping at-risk teenagers realize the importance of making wise choices lest they, too, land in prison.

A woman recently told me that she’d been divorced several years ago. In the depths of despair, she gave her life to Christ. So did her ex. Now they’re married again – to each other – and things are going well.

Another woman told me of having struggled with an addiction to prescription drugs. She hit rock bottom, began attending a Celebrate Recovery program, and committed her life to Jesus. She’s been clean for more than a year and is now beginning to reach out to others without hope.

Acts 7:30-36 tells the story of Moses and his second chance. Moses had murdered an Egyptian and then fled into the wilderness to avoid paying the consequences. Forty years later, God gave Him a task. He said, “You can be sure that I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries. So I have come to rescue them. Now go, for I will send you to Egypt.”

Verse 35 is priceless: “And so God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected by demanding, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, Moses was sent to be their ruler and savior. And by means of many miraculous signs and wonders, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and back and forth through the wilderness for forty years.”

God is the God of second chances. When we’re in right relationship with Him, He sees us not for who we were and the mistakes we made; He sees us for who we are in Christ and what we can become. He doesn’t see us through human eyes and reject us when we stumble and fall. Rather, He sees us through divine eyes, picks us up and dusts us off, and puts us back in the race. Granted, we often bear natural consequences for negative choices we’ve made in the past, but God’s grace enables us to deal with them as we must.

Has God given you a second chance? Tell us about it!