Saturday Scripture Gold with Bibi: God Knows, We All Make Mistakes!

Babbie Mason wrote these words, "God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. When you don't understand and can't see His plan, when you can't trace His hand, trust his heart."  (From a sermon by Jerry Watts, God's Gifts To Us, 6/24/2010)

Have you ever heard someone say, "That’s the first mistake I've made today?" We tend to joke about our mistakes because we all make mistakes! We might make them because we have poor information, or because we have bad judgment, or perhaps we are just making the wrong choices.

Mistakes aren't necessarily sin, but they can become sin because of the domino effect. One mistake often leads to another as we try to excuse or cover up our mistakes. Soon, we are getting in deeper and deeper, and a chain reaction has begun. Now, I don't know about you, but I have made enough mistakes in my lifetime to pretty much make me an expert. Maybe you have too!

As an example, a real common type of mistake that most us of make are panic prompted mistakes. These are mistakes that are made because we are in too great a hurry, or because we are afraid that something is going to happen. So we take quick action to try to keep it from happening. Sound familiar?

We are worried about something, and we are hesitant about letting God take control. So we handle it ourselves and the result is that we make mistakes. I refer you to Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12:10-13. No surprise here!

Next, how many times have we met people nearing the mystical age of 30, who haven’t met that "right someone" yet, and they are about to panic? "I am going to be a bachelor, or an old maid the rest of my life. No one will ever marry me!" 

So, in panic, they grab the first one they find! They get married, or they throw away their morals in the hope of catching someone, anyone. The result is a domino chain reaction that makes the situation worse, and not better.

It can happen in the area of our finances, too. It's so easy today to get into a financial bind. MasterCard works. Visa works. Stores urge us to use their "easy payment" plans. And the first thing we know, the bills start coming in and we suddenly realize that we just don’t have enough money to pay all our bills.

Therefore, we panic! Maybe we run down to the "quick loan" place and get a "bill consolidation loan" at lower monthly payments. But, the problem is that we now have a little breathing room, so... we often start charging all over again. It soon becomes worse than ever, and the dominoes are falling, again.

You see, panic prompted mistakes often start out as simple mistakes, but like falling dominoes, the momentum gets out of hand, and the result can be disastrous.

Sometimes, we make mistakes because of our neglect. One very clear example of this is King David. David, as you know, was a very special person. He is called a "man after God’s own heart." But, King David made just as many mistakes as we are capable of making. For example, David had 18 wives, and that is a lot of mistakes right there!

1 Kings 1:5-6 tells about David and Adonijah, one of his sons. Now listen to this, "And his father (that’s David) had never crossed him at any time." Actually, the Hebrew word is "never pained him." What it means is that David had never physically punished him, had never spanked him, had never disciplined him at any time!

The result was that Adonijah developed a selfish, rebellious nature that one day led him to say, "I want to be king, and I want to be king now! I can take the throne away from my father, and I’m going to do it!” What this tells us, is that one reason he was that kind of son was because of David’s neglect.

Poor David made the same mistake that many have made, and maybe are still making. He became so busy being King, being important, being an administrator, that he neglected his family. 

Obviously, we could go on and with examples of mistakes, but I hope that you get the point of this message. You see, we’re not perfect, but because of Jesus we can be forgiven. Despite all of our mistakes, and all the things we do wrong, and the times we stumble and fall, God still says, "Come, I want to forgive you!"  And that, my dear friends, is no mistake.

Scripture: Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 37:24; Ephesians 5:8; Isaiah 40:8; Romans 8:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Now, let's pray...

O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for in thy name's sake. Amen

Until next time...

Have a blessed week!

Bibi