No Do-Overs

I recently watched a movie about a man that was allowed to go back in time and experience the life he could have had. In this life, he was a pastor who had a loving wife and children, but his real life was quite different. He had chosen to pursue wealth and fortune, and this had taken him down a completely different path. It was his destiny to be a pastor and to help others by ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but because he didn’t know the Lord the way he could have, he thought the riches and pleasures of the world would make his life complete. In reality, there are many people who think and feel exactly the same way, and because of it, they are missing the life that God wants to give them.

God doesn’t allow us to go back in time. He encourages us to hold the life He’s given us extremely dear. He expects us to make the most of it, because we only get this one chance. We should be careful about the decisions and choices we make, and the only way to do this is to let the Lord guide us in everything we do. We should pray as the psalmist did in Psalm 119:133,135(NLT), when he asked the Lord, “133 Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil. 135 Look upon me with love; teach me your decrees.” Many of us have had to be strong and courageous because of the situations we’ve faced in life. We become so used to thinking we’ve got to keep all the balls in the air that, quite frankly, we let ourselves become too accustomed to keeping things moving through our own struggle and effort. All of us have experienced times like this, where we neglect to seek the Lord the way we should.

Romans 8:32(NLT) says, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” The gift of God’s Son is irrefutable evidence of God’s great love for us. Heavenly Father didn’t hold back not even a little bit, but He has given us everything we could ever desire to have through Jesus Christ. We didn’t deserve any of it. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places because of His overwhelming heart towards us. Everything that Adam lost, our precious Lord and Savior restored. Our sin caused us to miss out and left us totally in the dark, but God’s grace saved us. Jesus Christ did what we couldn’t do ourselves. And it didn’t stop there. He keeps pouring into us. Our responsibility is to keep ourselves under His infinite overflow.

John 10:10 tells us that Jesus Christ came to make a more than abundant life available to us. The access points for this kind of rich and satisfying life in the Spirit are the good decisions and choices that we should make. They must be in line with God’s Word and Will. Heavenly Father has identified us as His very own. We were purchased with the highest price that could be paid in all of eternity. He’s done everything to bring us close to Him, where nothing can separate us from His love, and He did it all without our help. In the same way that we leaned on Him for salvation, we must lean on Him for everything else. His goal is to see us transformed into the very image of Christ, and He knows how to help us achieve this goal so that we live our destiny each moment of every day.

There are no do-overs. We must remember this continually. With God in Christ, we don’t need do-overs. His grace is all we need. His grace elevates us so that we don’t have to be obsessed and overwhelmed with a need to handle everything on our own. God’s strength carries us, no matter what we face. There’s no mistake that we will make that our powerful and loving Father can’t repair. There’s no crooked path that He can’t make straight. So, let’s not join in with the world’s madness for greed, fame, and more of everything. That’s not the lifestyle of a believer and follower of Christ. We can make the most of our lives and have confidence in our choices when we wait on God. If we stay in His Word and remain humble, He will direct our paths and we won’t ever have to worry about looking back. We need only look forward, because He’s blessed us in Christ to have a glorious life, one where we continue to walk with Him and bask in His love each day. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“No Do-Overs”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.

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