June 6, 2011 with 6 Comments

357.

Major screw up in need of grace

I’m a major screw up when it comes to people.

The things I don’t mean to say I do. The things I mean to do I don’t.

I’m constantly putting my foot in my mouth or wishing I had a better filter between my brain and my mouth.

I spend much of my time backpedaling and asking for grace.

It’s kind of hopeless if you really want to know. I try to improve, but seem to constantly stumble over my own two feet (or long tongue). I’m impulsive but generally remorseful.

And I’m quite often misunderstood.

So I when page through the Scriptures, I’m beyond thankful for God’s grace to screw ups.

Without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to my 4 favorite Bible character screw ups:

1. Lot. This one is easy. Lot did everything wrong. He chose the wrong side selfishly, he made alliances with ungodly folks, he hosted the craziest parties known to mankind. When given a chance to escape, he hesitated. He complained about where God shipped him out to. And as if things couldn’t get worse, he slept with his two daughters and got them pregnant. Sick. Absolutely utterly sick. But make your way to II Peter 2:7 and you’ll see that God refers to Lot as “righteous Lot”. Say what? Yeah. I told you so. Keep reading.

2. David. Second on my list is David. We all know the story. Great kid, beautiful future. lives up to every expectation, until he gets successful. Then he sleeps with a married woman, kills off her husband and covers it all up. And what does God say about him? That he was a man after God’s own heart. You still wondering about grace? Keep reading.

3. Samson. Next is Samson, the man with the hair. He was strong, he was chosen, and he could do things that no one else could do. But he fell in love, with the wrong woman, a couple of different times. And he sacrificed it all for what? I still can’t figure it out. Anyway, the last picture of his life we get is in Judges 16:28-30. Samson dies for the Lord, a victor in the name of God. Unbelievable grace. But there’s still one more.

4. Manasseh. Let me introduce you to Manasseh. He became king at age 12. He was evil and worshiped idols. He burned his sons as an offering to false gods. In II Chronicles 33:9 it says that “Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel”. Only 2 verses later, after God confronts Manasseh with his evil ways, vs. 12 says that “when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” The rest as they say is history. God is  moved by Manasseh’s repentance and forgives him. Wow.

I’m not even joking. You can look these guys up. I could list so many more – screw ups saved by grace.

God’s grace. There’s nothing like it.

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  • RAM

    Enjoyed. :)

  • Denise Archambault

    I always appreciate how authentic you are Lina, because if you can share this sort of need for grace on your blog, I should at least be able to be honest about my own need for grace with the God who provides it and a few other people in my life who may need to see God’s grace at work in me. The fact is, of course God knows that we are going to screw up and need His grace, so what He is focused on is how readily we admit that need and beat a path to the cross where all is made right again. Not a license to screw-up without remorse, because it is the remorse that will cause us to beat that patht to the cross, just a God who “gets” us and willingly provides what we need to cover the gaps. Thanks again for daily, practical, life-changing teaching.

  • Melissa

    Liked,liked,liked so much! Thanks for this very practical encouragement today. Through you God let’s us know He is always pursuing us with His gift of grace. Sometimes I forget about the great stories that would show me this….need to dig deeper so God won’t have to chase me around so much saying ” hey! Here you forgot your grace.”

  • http://Z Milo

    Full of grace and truth. His grace is greater than all of sin.

  • Gina

    im always falling from grace.always seem to havemy.gymshoe/bike tire stuck in my mouth. I love the song amazing grace. My dreaml last woke me up.goose bumps. Cuz my dream was abt me falling from Grace.Pretty sure it was from my grandmother Rose who passed-

  • Amber

    There is nothing like God’s amazing grace for us, I can talk you how many times I so needed it. I think we sometime we can take God’s grace for grant-it and not even realized we do. I’m so lucky to have a loving heavenly father who gives me grace all the time. I think to if God gives me grace I should be able to give grace back. That is hard to do when you have been hurt by others, but they we have a loving father who will give us strength.