-Strength for Today- "God’s Mercy is Bigger Than Our Mistakes." -1 Timothy 1:12-13

I don’t know about you, but I find myself making mistakes daily. But again, due to our inherited Adamic nature, every human being fits that category.  In I Timothy 1:12-13, the Apostle Paul talks about his past saying, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer: persecutor, and a violent aggressor: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly.”

    Even though these deeds were violent, he’s honest about his mistakes. He doesn’t try to cover them up, he admits them, which is what we have to do:

·        Be honest about our mistakes and

·        Confess our sins.

     And then he says, “… the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” – verse 14. So in spite of those terrible things in his past, he’s not proud of them, yet, they’re there, and he can’t deny them. So with his track record, and listing those terrible things in his past God can’t use Paul?   Paul has messed up too bad. Nope. God can use Paul. That’s why he said, “…I was shown mercy.”

And just as God showed Paul mercy, He’ll show mercy you and me. It doesn’t matter what’s:

·        In our past;

·        It’s past, and it’s done.

      Therefore, God's mercy is bigger than any mistake that we’ve ever made. Because Jesus:’

·        Death,

·        Burial, and

·        Resurrection

      Is that the good news.  Therefore, His “sacrificial act of obedience”, and God’s “marvelous mercy,” is so far-reaching, and is greater than all our mistakes!

Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD