Me, Scumbags and God of Second Changes,

Me, Scumbags and God of Second Changes,

Lately God has been nudging me about giving people second changes. In general, I think, we don’t want to give people second changes. We want to cut them out of our radar if they have not been trustworthy. But God is all about second changes, forgiving and loving people time after time. What about us?

There is a saying “the first time some one hurts you, it’s their fault; the second time they hurt you the same way, it is your fault.” We should learn from our experiences, right? But how on earth then this Bible passage from Luke should be interpreted?

So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”(Luke 17:3-5)

Yes, we are to forgive each other. But people who want forgiveness need to repent! It is wildly different to forgive someone who is sorry than to someone who isn’t repenting. I think we need to take care of ourselves and remove ourselves from situation when people intentionally want to hurt us. But if someone indeed repents, we need to forgive.

Too often we tend to leave people who sin alone. We put a ‘scumbag’ title on their forehead and leave them alone. Yet, we are not any better than these people we’d like to see disappear from the earth. We are all sinners. Some sins might be public and easier to judge. Some sins might even be widely accepted in our society but they are still sins before God. Such are our judgmental hearts which need to be cleansed by the blood of Christ.

We are all called to repent and ask forgiveness.
We are all called to leave judging to God.
We are all called to give each other second changes.
We are all called to encourage each other on our pilgrimage.
We are all called to keep on loving and forgiving each other. Time after time!

Increase our faith, Lord! Increase our faith! Amen

Q4U: Do you find it hard to forgive?

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