-November 13, 2013-
Good morning beloved, happy Monday,
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.’”
Jonah 3:1-2).
God is a God of second chances; He is patient, gracious, and merciful with us and to us. Sometimes we fail the first time; sometimes we make mistakes the first time; sometimes we sin the first time. God doesn’t discard us, He forgives us and restores us. He takes us back to where we went astray and restores to a closer relationship with Himself and uses us once again.
Jonah is a classic example in Scripture. God told him in Job 1:2, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” Instead he fled to Tarshish, in the opposite direction, found a ship, and paid the fare. He fled from the presence of the Lord. We are familiar with his story and how God caused a great fish to swallow him and he spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. He prayed to the Lord, repented, and went to Nineveh. God had the fish vomit him up onto dry land at just the right place.
There are times that God will take drastic means to bring us back. Jonah, the runaway prophet ran back to the Lord. He fulfilled his mission and the whole city of 120,000 including their king, repented before the Lord. He wasn’t finished with Jonah yet, for Jonah was displeased and angry that God had mercy on Israel’s enemies. God caused a plant to grow up, a gourd, to provide shade for Jonah. Then He sent a worm to damage the plant which made Jonah angrier. God told him that he had pity on a plant, but He had pity on people.
Their are other notable people that God gave a second chance to: Peter, who denied the Lord three times. The Lord forgave him and restored him. He because a great evangelist, elder, and teacher. John Mark, who left Paul and Barnabas and the work of the Lord and went back home to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas had a great rift between them over him. Later he was restored and Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:11, “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.”
Whether God give you a second chance to be saved or a second chance to serve Him, God can redeem, restore, and reclaim you. God disciplines us for our good and for His glory, so that we may share in His holiness. I went off to the bank Sunday afternoon to drop off the church bank deposit into the depository as I do each Sunday afternoon. I always put the deposit in my car in the garage then drive across town. This time I forgot to take it with me and I had to come all the way back home, get it, and go back a second time. I blamed myself, but I learned a good lesson. God gave me a second chance to do it right, to make it right. He has given me many chances with many different things.
Let us thank God for the second chances He gives is with our jobs, our relationships, our health, and many other things. God has a plan for us and He will fulfill it in spite of us. He will redirect us, just like the GPS which, when we make wrong turn, says, “Redirecting.” There are times when all of us at one time or another, need redirecting. God will redirect us.
Have a blessed day thanking God for His second chances in life, some big, some small. Stay safe and healthy.
When make a wrong turn we must turn around, otherwise our journey will not be sound,
Dean
Dean Allen's Daily Devotional 