May 6, 2022 – Click here to listen
For the last few days, we have been boxing up our belongings and preparing to move out. We sold our home furnished but just our personal things including our: art collection, fishing/ hunting gear, and clothes turned out to be quite a job.
We swore we would never move ourselves again and opt for professional movers and yet that is exactly what we did. Neither of us anticipated how difficult it would be due to selling it furnished. It seems to me we would learn. We could have easily afforded to hire a professional mover to move our things into storage, but we didn’t, and have paid dearly for that decision over the past several days.
I’ve been studying the Old Testament for months and it is mind-boggling how many times the nation of Israel ignored hard lessons learned and all the warnings from God went from one ear to the next with not a retained word stopping in the brain. Countless times they went right back to their idols and evil behavior like a pig returning to its wallow.
I suppose it is human nature to keep making the same mistakes to some degree. In my case, I was a stupid young man and now in many ways, I suppose I’m a stupid old man making mistakes that are hauntingly familiar and seemingly never learning from them.
With all of that said there are many mistakes I’ve made that I will never repeat. I made just about every mistake a person could make before God came into my heart. Those will not be repeated and hopefully hearing about some of them and what I endured because of them will help others to avoid them. If some of those painful experiences can help someone avoid the same mistakes I made, then perhaps my heartache was not totally in vain.
Learn from your mistakes and other people’s mistakes, especially those in the Bible, and don’t make them again. History will repeat itself only if we allow it. Nobody’s perfect. We all “err” and need forgiveness.
I’ve made some big mistakes in life. I’ve wished I could turn back the hands of time and fix things more often than I’d like to admit. But unfortunately, we have to live with our mistakes. Sometimes, we can only hope and pray for forgiveness from others. While others may never forgive us fortunately God will forgive us if we ask and are sincere.
I can hardly remember a day going by without asking Him for forgiveness for something stupid I’ve done. I tire of it, but He never gets tired of forgiving those who repent and hearing our sincere prayers for help in avoiding mistakes in the future.
Though it is not from the Bible someone has said that to err is human. Okay so you are human, don’t dwell on it. When God forgives that should be the end of the matter. Constantly beating yourself up and never forgiving yourself is not what God desires.
Isaiah 43:18
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!