God of Second Chances

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22,23

In the Bible, we see many names and titles being attributed to Our Lord God – God of Israel; God of All comfort; God of Restoration and so on. But He is also the God of Second Chances, to rightly say the God of Another Chance. Where would we all be, if our God was not the God of another chance, no one would have remained is the bitter truth – (Romans 3:23). We see in the scriptures (Lamentations 3:22, 23) that it’s only because of His Mercies and Faithfulness that we are not consumed. Even when we were unfaithful, God was, is and will be also forever faithful. Well in fact, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). When the first and the second Temple were built, on both occasions the people of Israel praised God saying, “He is Good for His Mercy endures forever” (2 Chronicles 7:6; Ezra 3:11). They were rightly overwhelmed by God’s unfailing mercy, and His steadfast love towards Israel. They knew He is a covenant keeping God and He won’t go over his words. Thank God for His Amazing Grace, He doesn’t stop with 2nd or 3rd or even the 100th chance, as His arms are always outstretched toward us as a hen that gathers her chicks (Matthew 23:37). But we better not take it for granted. Why? Because when God hates something and says it’s not good, then there is something really bad. So we better not toy with it or try to analyse it with our ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’ questions. Instead flee from it and run to Him – (2 Timothy 2:22). Even after knowing that Judas Iscariot had come to lay the Betrayal Kiss, Jesus gave him one last chance to repent, but Judas blinded by the money betrayed the innocent blood. I personally feel the warning was pretty clear when Jesus said ‘I am He’ – (Luke 18:4-6). But Judas was so blinded that he missed to notice such clear writing on the board. Within a matter of hours we see Peter denying Jesus three times, but when Jesus looked at Him, he went out and wept bitterly – (Luke 22:61-62). Peter took up the second chance that Jesus offered and became a Great Apostle and eventually a Pillar of the Church (Galatians 2:9), but Judas became the Son of perdition (John 17:12). What a stark contrast, both had daily walked, lived and dined with Christ. But their end was utterly different because one grabbed the 2nd chance whereas one overlooked it!! Similarly we can draw a parallel between the lives of David and Saul, kings of Israel. David accepted God’s forgiveness and thrived but Saul tried to justify his mistakes and died – (2 Samuel 12:13; 1 Samuel 15:15). Today, are we turning a blind eye to God’s chances by taking them lightly? I read recently, “The right time to get right with God is right away”. Let us not spurn the chances that He sends our way, day after day, wave after wave. He is still waiting for us for His mercy endures forever!

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