Eternal Focus

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever felt like you’ve used up all your “second chances;” that God’s reservoir of forgiveness is bone dry? Perhaps you’ve thought, “I don’t have a right to come and ask Him to forgive me again.” Friend, it doesn’t matter how many times we have sinned.

Suppose you came back to God the 5,000th time with the same sin. Will He forgive you? Yes, He will. As far as He is concerned, it is the first time you have come to Him. Why? Because He has forgotten all the other times.

Our God doesn’t hold grudges. He does punish sin, but He doesn’t hold grudges. The God of Jonah, David, Mark, Peter, and Jacob is your God and my God. Each one of these famous men in the Bible famously failed Him! I have come to Him so many times and asked Him for a second chance. And guess what? He has given it.

ACTION POINT:

If He can give Jonah, David, Jacob, etc., a second chance, He will certainly give you another chance. Failure is not final.

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hosea 6:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

On this New Year’s Eve, you may be wondering what the future holds. What’s going to happen?

Years ago, some men were on a leaky ship in the middle of a rough sea. One of them asked the captain, “Are we safe?” He said, “Well, the boilers are weak and may explode at any moment. The ship is taking on water. To be honest with you, we may go up, or we may go down. But at any rate, we’re going on.”

That’s the way we face this new year. Jesus may come; we may go up. We may die; we’ll go down and then up. But at any rate, we’re going on. Whatever the new year holds, as a child of God, we march on. For when He comes, we want to be found faithful. May it be said of us, as it was of Daniel, “…forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him” Daniel 6:4. And to the early church, Paul said, “Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2).

ACTION POINT:

BIBLE MEDITATION:

That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Your soul, made in the image of God, will exist forever. Evangelist Billy Sunday explained it this way:

“Imagine a little bird taking a grain of sand and flying to a distant planet. It would take him a million years to fly to that distant planet. Then he would drop that grain of sand. Then the bird would fly back to earth, taking another million years. He gets another grain of sand and flies back to the distant planet.

“Back and forth, back and forth he goes. When he will have transplanted every speck of sand on earth to that distant planet, it will only be breakfast time in eternity.”

Your soul will go on, and on, and on.

ACTION POINT:

Did you know that the only man-made thing in Heaven are the scars of Jesus Christ? When He went back to Heaven, He took some souvenirs of His visit with him…the scars in His hands and side. He has kept those scars as a lasting memorial through all eternity. When Jesus comes again, one of the ways we will know Him is His scars. Zechariah 13:6 says, “And one shall say unto Him, ‘What are these wounds in Thine hands?’ And He shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.’”

I want you to imagine our risen Savior. See Him on the throne of His glory. See in His hands the print of the nails, because He bears them for all eternity. I want you to see those nail-scarred hands reaching to you right now. Would you not like to put your hand in that hand and say, “Save me, Lord Jesus. Thank You that You are the God-man. Thank You that, as a man, You suffered in order to save me.” Pray it and mean it.