Theme of the Week: How God Teaches Us Through Winning and Losing
Bible Verse: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1
Scripture Reading: John 4:1-42
One of the most frustrating events in traffic is when the red light turns green and the first vehicle doesn’t move. The reaction from others?
HONK! HONK! HONK!
Finally, they move, and, of course, the second car gets stuck when the light turns red again.
That’s sometimes how sin works in my life, the idea that I have done something “so bad” that I am stuck and not moving forward.
John 4 is a story about exactly that.
Jesus sits at a well when a woman comes to get water in the heat of the day probably to avoid the judgments (read “honking”) from her fellow townsfolk.
The conversation weaves between Jesus’ gentleness and her emotions when something strange happens: Jesus tells her all about her life.
This catches her attention. Red light.
But the conversation doesn’t end there as Jesus continues and reveals to her who He is. Green light.
In her moment of realization, she runs back to town, telling those she was avoiding who she met. She moved when she saw His green light.
By the end of the interaction, the whole town is excited to meet Jesus. More green lights.
If you are like me, you sin, and even hang on to your sin, letting it gain control over you and prevent you from moving forward.
But why do we sit at the red light of sin when Jesus’s green lights of grace and forgiveness are there the same as they were in John 4?
In Psalm 51:1, David writes about God’s “abundant mercy” (ESV) from a time of abundant sin in his life. And in 1 John 1, we read that if we confess our sin, God forgives our sin.
What did David and John understand? That my abundant sin does not outweigh God’s abundant mercy. Not even close.
Prayer: Jesus, I confess that I have sin in my life. Thank You for Your grace and forgiveness that are ready for me when I confess my sin to You. And thank You that my abundant sin does not outweigh Your abundant mercy. Amen.
Reflection: Read Psalm 51 and John 4 and see how you don’t have to be stuck at the red light of sin as long as you begin to see Jesus’ green light of forgiveness and move forward.
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