Chances
From Yara Armenta
The Parable of the Prodigal Son is very well known and an amazing lesson of what it means to be given a chance. I recently had a situation where the patience and grace God has given me was tested. It was tested with a situation where forgiveness was needed, and all the voices that were speaking were saying, “Do not forgive. They do not deserve a chance.” I began to analyze my own life at this time, and it caused me to ponder about the situation. My first thought was, “They do not deserve to be forgiven, they will continue to act in a foolish manner.” Then God put a heavy conviction on me, “I have forgiven you, who are you to not forgive? Who are you to deny a second chance?” I got up and spoke to them about the situation, forgave them and their eyes showed me how much they needed someone to give them a chance.
God does the very same with us. We may fail Him, yet He continues to show us grace and mercy every day. This is stated in Lamentations 3:22-23, “Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” (NKJV)
My one main “BUT” in this is we must not abuse His mercy and grace. We see this in the book of Galatians 2:21, “...do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” (NLT) I love the saying, “Check your heart.” I visualize this like hockey players when they check their opponents in the rink. Let the Holy Spirit check your heart before an action or a word is even done or spoken. God is merciful, and He honors a sincere heart - like the heart of the prodigal son - who realized how wrong he was and was even okay with returning as a helper. His father saw a sincere heart and welcomed him with a celebration.
The world is very cruel, and when people of the world see a heart that is Christ-like, it draws them in. Not because of you, but because they see God in your heart, and the LORD is able to work through you. I encourage you to have God guide you to give chances to those who seem “unworthy.” We were once unworthy, but through Christ, we were made into a new creation and righteous.
