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Apr 08, 2022 18:30pm

A Second Chance

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In college, I had a professor who gave us a test. We had ample amount of time to study for it and should have been prepared. However, on test day, whispers and murmurs of groans and complaints could be heard throughout the room. With deep sighs of anxiety, I finished my test and turned it in. It was bad. I knew it. Everyone knew it. We had heard the material. We knew what we were supposed to do, but we messed up big time.

Two days later, when class met again, we dreaded seeing our professor. The look on his face as he entered the room let us know really quick that he was not happy. He pulled a stack of papers out of his bag and handed them back to each of us, as our heads were hung in shame.

We got the lecture of a lifetime as he railed on us for our lack of responsibility and respect. Tears were shed as we looked at our grades. I was an A-B student, but this, this was bad.

F – 34

Written in red, staring me in the face was my horrible grade that I deserved. I knew I hadn’t studied. I had hardly paid attention in class. I had way too many other things on my mind.

He was still fuming. Still telling us how angry he was about our performance and how we should have actually tried. One person even tried to give some lame excuse and he cut them off quickly.

And then, he did the unthinkable.

“I’m throwing out this test. Next week, you will take this test again.”

What? Was he serious? Would he really do that? Was this for real?

We had messed up big time and he was giving us another chance.

The Israelites had been given the 10 commandments. They knew about God, had seen His glory and miracles, and promised to serve Him alone. But when Moses went up unto the mountain, the test began. And as Moses returned, he knew they had failed. He threw down the stone tablets, breaking them into pieces and confronted them about their sin.

But God did the unthinkable.

He gave them another chance.

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” (Exodus 34:1)

How great is our God? When we least deserve it, He provides mercy to us! Oh, the grace that pours from our Lord!

“And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed,
The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7)

He is merciful to us. No matter how bad you’ve messed up, He is ready to forgive you. You simply need to accept it.

If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and made Him Lord of your life, will you do that today? He’s offering this beautiful second chance that, even though we don’t deserve it, He is gracious enough to give.

If you are a follower of Christ, thank the Lord today for His mercy! Let us never take that for granted! His mercies are new every morning!

“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)