Do you ever feel like you got your chance, and you blew it? You had something good, then you lost it. You had progress and momentum, then one little bump in the road threw you so far off the wagon you have been freaking lost in the wilderness since?

What happens to those of us who screw up? Those of us who fail? Those who sit it out and miss the boat? Are we counted out forever? Are we left to pay the price of our pifall, sulk in our sadness, and never forget our failure?

I’ve been there before. I’ve taken a great opportunity and royally messed it up. I’ve shown up as less than my best self, then beat myself up over it for months afterwards. And after I beat myself up for so long, I dismissed myself from future opportunities because I believed I could never be good enough. (sound familiar?) I’ve been running along hard and fast until my Spirit gave me a gut check and caused me to look up and realize I was totally on the wrong path heading in the wrong direction.

You too? Have you been wrong before? Have you failed? Have you shown up as a second rate version of yourself, then shamed yourself silly afterwards? Mabye it’s something really small and insignificant that you’ve blown out of proportion, or maybe it’s something so big you can’t seem to ever get over it.

Well, let me tell you Sis, our God is the God of 2nd chances. Then 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, and whatever it takes to redeem us time and time again and set us back in alignment with his good plans that he still hasn’t given up on.

Did you know those good plans for your life that God talks about in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” Yeah, those plans, girl they haven’t been cancelled! God never drew a line through his good plans for you and said “scratch that, she’s gone and screwed it all up.” Honey, don’t you know God knew every mistake you would ever make before your first breath and he STILL CHOSE YOU!

We live in a cancel culture today where you say the wrong thing and boom, you’re cancelled. You’re shut down. You’re out with no way to get back in. But that’s not our God. God has not and will not cancel you. The call he has on your life is still in effect!

Let me prove it. There are countless stories in scripture of God’s great second chances.

Rahab. Do you remember her? What was her profession? Yeah, she was the prostitute. Her entire life was filled with shame, but God never once took his eye off his good plans for her life and her legacy. She couldn’t cancel her call, even with her lifestyle of sin. Read her story in Joshua chapter 2, then pick up again in chapter 6.

God used her to hide his people to prepare for the falling of the walls of Jericho, then he saved Rahab and her entire family when the rest of Jericho perished. She was given a second chance. Why was this so important? Matthew 1 gives us the genealogy of Jesus and there with all the men’s name listed as it says this one, the father of this son, and then his son to become the father of the next son, it says in verse 5 “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse.”

It was so important to include Rahab’s name because this proved the power of God’s second chances. This woman, shunned by society, and likely with very little self worth and dignity in tact, was not only saved, but she was chosen to be in the lineage of families that would bring us Jesus! This was all part of her legacy.

And it’s here in print for you and I today to see … GOD WILL NOT CANCEL YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR MISTAKES. Even if you’ve been missing the boat for 40 years, girl, he’s sending another boat for you! Your past may be painful, and it may be pitiful, but your future is full of promise, potential and power. You have a legacy to live and God doesn’t intend on letting any of your misteps to cause you to miss it!

Here’s your second chance, Sis.

Did you notice there was another woman’s name in that scripture of the lineage of Jesus? Ruth. This was a woman who had lost everything. Her husband had died and she was left taking care of her mother-in-law Naomi, and they were starving. After her tremendous loss came her second chance. One day while sneaking around trying to gather grain in a field where she wasn’t supposed to be, she met Boaz.

Ruth may have had her whole world come crashing down, she may have been desperate and destitute, but God had good plans for her. Plans to bless and prosper her. Those plans were not cancelled. Here was her second chance … Boaz. Boaz was a rich and powerful man. He married Ruth and guess what, they had a son named Obed who would become the father of Jesse. And Jesse would become the father of David.

How about David? We talk about the amazing legacy of David often. The shepherd boy who killed Goliath, then became a mighty King whom God richly blessed. You know what we don’t talk about a lot? David was also an adulterer and murderer.

One day he saw a beautiful woman, named Bathseba, taking a bath and he decided he just had to have her. She was married, but David was King, and Kings shall have whatever Kings want. So he wanted this woman, he slept with her, Bathsheba became pregnant. Remember, she was married. So what did King David do? He intentionally sent the woman’s husband, Uriah, to the front lines of the battle to be killed. Yip, David, that’s murder.

Would God cancel David? Read the story for yourself in 2 Samuel 11 & 12. God was not pleased with David. But David’s call was not cancelled. God’s good plans for him were restored. He repented and once again walked in the blessings of the Lord, and had a son named Solomon. And guess what y’all, these names show up in the lineage of Jesus! Matthew 1: 6 “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.”

David who committed adultery and murder, and Bathsheba, the woman who was tricked into sleeping with the King when she was married, then lost her beloved husband and her firstborn son, all of them were used for something greater than they could have ever imagined. They were given a second chance to fulfill the good plans God had for their lives. Their legacy changed our lives, because their legacy was Jesus!

So, back to you, Sis. You have a legacy, and that legacy will not be cancelled because you screwed up! You know what would break God’s heart even more than your failure? Your failure to accept his forgiveness, his mercy, and his redeeming power over every detail of your life. That’s what would be more upsetting.

I’m a girl who has screwed up repeatedly, and I’m realizing God still wants to use me. He still has blessings aligned for me. I’ve never been cancelled for even a minute.

Girl, take your second chance and run with it! Drop the guilt and shame the enemy tries to burden you with. You still have a legacy to live and leave!

Ephesians 2: 8-10 “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (That also means the bad things we have done can’t cancel it.) For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Yip, there it is, proof your past hasn’t canceled your future. Proof your failure will not take away your legacy. Proof your humanness has already been covered by the gift of grace, declaring you a masterpiece! And who wrote this scripture? A man who knew a thing or two about second chances. That man was Paul. Formerly Saul, the man who relentlessness hunted down all followers of Christ to cut their heads off. Then God entered his life, changed his heart, saved his soul, and set him on a path to write the majority of the New Testament Bible we read today.

Second chances. Oh heck yeah. That’s our God. Come on and get yours now!

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