Chances

 I read something about the Father recently and I'll share it with you; "He is the God of the second chance...the fat chance....the slim chance....the no chance." What chance is there that you'll dare to believe that?

You may be one of the many who feel that they've run out of chances. You've had many, but they seem to have all slipped away. Maybe you've run out of chances. They've slipped away, either by your choices or someone else's. People may encourage you to "cheer up, look up, and buck up," but all you really want to do is just give up, You see no chances and even if you did, the thought of another failure, another loss, so frightens you, that you can't bring yourself to act upon it. To you, it may really seem that there is no chance.

Facing all this, I ask again if you could dare to believe that....there is? In Him there is. In Christ there is. In Joel chapter 2, God speaks to a people devastated by war, famine, and disease, all as a result of their own disobedient actions. Yet, in Him, despite their sin and rebellion, they had not run out of chances. He told them that if they would turn to Him and away from their own destructive desires, put their trust in Him and allow Him to work that....."I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts." He would give back what was lost to not only one wave of destruction, but four.

These waves of swarming locusts had left the people with nothing, yet in the midst of nothing God promised them restoration. Not in part, but complete. It's the kind of promise only God can make and only God can perform. Is it the kind of promise that you can believe? Is there a chance that you could take Him at His word and put your life in His hands? Not part of your life, but all of it? Not some of your heart, but the whole of it?

I don't know what kind of "locusts" have ravaged your life and sought to steal your hope. It may be that as you read this, the swarms of locusts around your life have blotted out the light of your hope. Dare to believe that they can never blot out the Light of your hope in Jesus Christ. With Jesus, there is more than just a chance. There is a guarantee, signed in His blood. It says that all things are possible with God for everyone who believes. He is the One who asks, "Is anything too difficult for Me?" With a word from Him, the cutting, stripping, swarming, and hopping locusts assaulting your life must draw back. In their place He will bring about a restoration. And what He restores yields a beauty and bounty beyond what was lost.

If you're looking at your chances today, you may not see anything to hold on to. If you'll look into the face of Jesus,  you'll see more than a chance. You'll begin to see, through His eyes, the possibilities. Possibilities that He means to turn into realities. The barren land will again bloom. The hope that died will live again. You can live again. Let Him make you to live again.

Blessings,
Pastor O