God Restores and Gives Second Chances

I once interviewed a former police officer who told me how he’d tried to solve his financial difficulties by robbing banks. His actions led to prison time and divorce. He eventually hit rock bottom and committed his life to Christ. Now he’s helping at-risk teenagers realize the importance of making wise choices before they, too, land in prison.

A woman told me that, following her divorce, she fell into utter despair. That’s when she gave her life to Christ. So did her ex. They later remarried, and their relationship thrived as never before.

Another woman told me of struggling with an addiction to prescription drugs. In desperation, she attended a Celebrate Recovery program and committed her life to Jesus. She’s been clean for nearly a decade and uses her experience to encourage others with similar addictions.

Our God gives second chances

Acts 7:30-36 tells of Moses murdering an Egyptian and fleeing 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.” (Acts 7:34)

Acts 7:35-36 is priceless:

³⁵And 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. ³⁶And 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.”

Seeking God’s forgiveness

When we seek God’s forgiveness for wrong attitudes and behaviors, He cleanses us from our sin. 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 reject us when we stumble and fall. Rather, He picks us up and dusts us off, and puts us back in the race.

Granted, we might bear consequences for negative choices we’ve made in the past, but God’s grace enables us to deal with them. He often uses those for His glory in ways we’d ever imagine.