Second Chances

Ever wonder how we can continue to fail every day in so many ways, yet we get back up again the next morning with a renewed sense of hope to try again? Or perhaps tomorrow you don't get out of bed. Maybe you just stay in bed all day, covers pulled up by your shoulders, your head all snug in your super soft down pillow and you leave the curtains closed.

The fact remains most of us don't just sit in that bed after a horrible, terrible day. Sure some of us may lay there for a couple of days, perhaps a week, but we all have to get up some time. The sad thing is what is going on in our heads while we lay there. It's usually something like, "Poor me, my life sucks, I am worthless, no one cares if I am here today, my life doesn't matter, so why even bother getting up?"

Do you honestly believe that stuff in your head? Why is it, as women, that we believe the lies we tell ourselves in our head? Why is it that we give ourselves the lowest self esteem possible? Is it because we don't feel like our efforts matter? That if we choose to stay at home, we don't contribute to our families financial matters? Is that we are successful because we don't hold down a job and a family? Where do the lies come from? Our past failures? People in our past and present lives? Perhaps a word spoken in anger that finds its way back into our heads like some sick recording that is stuck in a loop?

Nope, it's the enemy, trying to tie that weight around our neck once more, to keep up in bondage to ourselves. To convince us that the lies in our head our true. Do you know how to make them stop? Talk to God! Oh, I can hear you now, God can't hear me, my needs are that great, what can He do for me anyhow? Truth is, do you even bother to try? Do you honestly have a heart to heart conversation with God like you would with a close friend and really pour out what is going on in your life? You matter to God all the time. Your seemingly small matters, matter to God.

Do you know that when you pray to God, that all of heaven stops, and listens? Everything going on at that particular time is being quieted by God. He stops what is doing, makes sure he can hear every word you are speaking, no matter if it's just a whisper or your voice in your head, but He listens. Really listens! Your voice matters in heaven! God isn't even judging the quality of your prayers. He isn't sitting there talking to some of the angels saying, "Oh what is that person asking me for help with that again, can't they just do something for themselves?"

God is a God of second chances. He is willing to overlook every failure we make. Every single one. Nothing is beyond God's forgiveness. He is like a parents that watches a child make a mistake. His heart breaks to just rush out and fix it or to prevent it from happening. Like most parents however, we see the need in letting go a bit. We wait because we know what comes from learning from our mistakes. We learn valuable lessons that will help us to become better people. He is just like us in the fact, that He is never far from us. He is just waiting for us to ask for help. Like any parent would, He races and reaches out to us and helps us. No request is too small, or too big, or not worth His time.

So whether you just lost your job, lost a family member, lost your home in the recent financial mess of this year, lost your marriage, lost hope...remember this, God is waiting for you. He has the hope you don't anymore. He has the courage, the love, the forgiveness, the belief in you that you can pick yourself up and go on. You can even make this next chance, better than the one you had.

Here is something from an email post I got from Max Lucado, one of my most inspiring authors whose works I love and can't seem to get enough of. One call and heaven's fleet appears. Your prayer on earth activates God's power in heaven. You are the someone of God's kingdom. Your prayers move God to change the world. You may not understand the mystery of prayer. You don't need to. But this much is clear: Actions in heaven begin when someone prays on earth. What an amazing thought! When you speak, Jesus hears. And when Jesus hears, the world is changed.

All because someone prayed. May you realize that God gives us second chances on a daily basis, and you matter to Him!