I have a good friend who recently made a big mistake.  He cut some financial corners that cost him his job, some friendships, and ultimately his wife and family.  He felt like he was at the end of his rope.  I got an opportunity to speak with him and try and encourage him a bit.  The one thing he was clinging to was that God still loved him and always would.  That is a truth we should all cling to in good times and bad.  Let’s look together at Paul’s words in Romans 8. 

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

While my friend’s choice had some difficult consequences, they didn’t change the fact of God’s great love for him.  God loves us in the midst of our sin, but He loves us too much to leave us there.  He will continue to work in our hearts and lives to make us more like Him.  When we fail it is an opportunity for us to cling more tightly to God so that we don’t stumble again.  Today and every day hold on to the truth of God’s great love for you.

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave