It is rare that a person gets it right the first time around. The People of Faith frequently stumble and fall because of inexperience, weakness, or ignorance. They make poor decisions based on what they knew at the time. They eventually discover the choice they made was not the best because they lacked meaningful experience with what they were dealing with at the time. They make poor choices because they are often weak. They know they are making a poor choice but for any number of reasons they don’t have the strength to make a better choice. We also make poor decisions because we are ignorant of the right choice or the full repercussions of making the wrong choice.
If God left us with no way of rectifying poor choices or was idle in helping us make better ones in the future we would be content with who we are with little desire to change. Yet God is unwilling to keep us as we are. God offers the People of Faith the opportunity for second chances and second efforts.
The Scriptures teach that shortcomings because of inexperience, weakness, or ignorance is permanent or without recourse but a common human frailty proving with little doubt that we are often less than we want to be and what we should be. And we would stay that way without God’s assistance; for He finds a way to motivate us to be better than we are. Without this, we would be content with poor choices by excusing ourselves in tandem with the whole world’s tendency to believe we should have no regrets to be happy and feel good about ourselves. In contrast, God humbles us by our shortcomings and regrets because we need to be forgiven and want be better in the future. And we are unwilling to be selective when it come to what God wants from us but contrite and willing to be pleasing to Him and content with who we are becoming.
We have the opportunity to have a second chances. We see this everywhere in Scripture. One passage that comes to mind is the woman who committed adultery. The Scribes and Pharisees were publicly humiliating her. It is doubtful that Jesus would have orchestrated this intersection of these religious leaders, the women, and Himself, if she had not already felt a deep sense of regret and shame before she was publicly humiliated.
The religious leaders had no concept of second chances. They wanted to stone her. Yet Jesus reminded them they were also sinners by saying “he that is without sin let him cast the first stone.” Ridden by guilt these hypocritical religious leaders made their exit one at a time. Jesus turned to the woman and ask her where are those who are condemning you? She replied that no one is condemning her now. Jesus told her that he did not condemn her either. But to go and sin no more. This is the pattern for all us to be free from who we have been and to be more than who we are, wether we stumble much or stumble little.
We also have the opportunity to make a second efforts. And not only do we have the opportunity but we are often required to do so as a condition and proof of our faith. This is contrary to what we have a tendency to believe or want to believe; for we are more comfortable with the path of least resistance in almost everything or we have some illusion that God is at our beckon call just because He has promised to come to our aid.
We see this second effort principle in Scripture. It is everywhere but here are two quick examples. In the New Testament we see the women who was emotionally and financially exhausted because she spent much time and money on physicians who couldn’t help her. And it looked like she could not get help from Jesus because of the thick crowd around Him. Yet, her persistence was rewarded when she squeezed and pushed her way through the crowd and touched the hem of his garment and was instantly healed of her infirmity.
In the Old Testament, Naaman was a Syrian high ranking military officer who first resisted dipping his body in muddy waters of the Jordan River. Yet, because he believed the word of the prophet to be the Word of God he humbled himself before his underlings and dipped in the River Jordan not one time, or two or three times, but seven times in which he was instantly healed of leprosy as a reward for obedience and persistence.
There are too many examples of second efforts among the ancient and early church to mention in this essay. Only to write that if we need help in any practical or spiritual way we should be willing to extend our requests to God as many times as necessary, not only because we know it is a certain proof of our faith but also because God himself is our example; in which God has made and is making every effort to give us all that is needful in this life and all that will be given in the life to come.
JCH