Love That Never Fails

12. Amazing Grace

When we think of great leaders, we generally imagine men or women of great integrity, upstanding citizens with unblemished records who model ideal values and behaviour to others.  It's easy to think of the great leader Moses and gloss over his less than perfect moments but it's important to remember that clearly God still lovingly uses people who've fallen into temptation.

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."

When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?" They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock." "And where is he?" Reuel asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat." Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.""
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭2:11-22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Are you struggling with guilt or running away over something in your past that you wish you could erase? Perhaps it's a simple mistake or one for which you feel guilt or pain about every day.  You need to remember that God will still use you, just as he went on to use Moses, a man who had taken the life of another.  God loves you, forgives you and wants to use you in His Kingdom. Jesus died so that our sins could be forgiven, so we must not continue to dwell on the past. We learn from it but don't live in it!

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Let's pray:

Dear Lord,

Thank You so much for sending Jesus to die on the cross, taking all my sins. What a blessing it is to know that as a Christian, You see me just as if I had never sinned! This is a wonderful picture of Your amazing grace!

Please help me not to dwell on past mistakes but to remember that You have a great future planned for me. Thank You for loving me and seeing the best in me. Please use my strengths and let me learn from my weaknesses as I serve You today.

Amen.