SECOND CHANCES

   God is the Lord of second chances.
   By coming to know Christ for salvation is the beginning of a new life:  a time to live according to God's standards instead of by our own recipes for living.
   When we read and study the Holy Bible, we are ingesting the words of the Lord into our minds, thereby learning about Him but also we learn about ourselves and how to conduct our behavior.
   As Christians, however, we are not perfect people.  We are simply people, saved by grace, yet we make mistakes.  God knows our shortcomings and our faults and He forgives us of our continuing faults as we continue in prayer, asking for forgiveness, but as we also pray for guidance.
   God also allows situations in our lives that will help us to remain humble, lest we get puffed up in our own conceits and tend to take matters into our own hands instead of relying on Him to help us along the journey of our lives.
  The Lord constantly reminds us that He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep, and as long as we stay behind the Lord and allow Him to lead, we have less problems; but when we, in our pride, get in front of the Shepherd, we stumble and fall because we are not the Leader.  Thus the Lord will allow us to bruise our knees from time to time in order for us to learn lessons about leadership and why we need Him in front of us. The Lord knows the future:  He knows the road we are traveling.  He knows what is around the curves and over the hills. 
   By faith, then, we follow the Lord because He knows best what is best for us:  and He truly wants us to have His best as He also wants all people to have His best, which is out of the abundance of His love; and for all who will follow Him they, too, will have His best.
   For you see the Lord has a perfect plan for our future with Him and with all believers for all eternity when our lives on the earth are finished. 
   And along this road of life with Him we are going to make mistakes:  and He knows we will.  But when we make mistakes, He applies anointment to our bruised knees and helps us in our continuing journey with Him, to get back on the bicycle and start peddling.  And He gives us many second chances.  For we know that we are His children and that He is our heavenly Father. 
   And with God, He is the perfect Father.  He is the best deal in the world today.