God’s Grace, Mercy, and Patience

In the last few weeks in our teen class, we have been learning how to love God with all our hearts (Luke 10:27) as we grow to know Him better. We are burdened that our teens fully understand what it means to truly love God with our all and to realize how amazing His grace and mercy are!

I had been praying for an example to really help the teens understand how rotten our sins are - even the little ones - and how they affect our lives even when we don’t realize that we are sinning. God gave me that example in a very unusual way - one of my chronic illnesses. I wanted to share that along with some of our lesson.

One of my illnesses is called celiac sprue - an auto-immune disease that damages my small intestine and prevents my absorbing nutrients. There is one treatment for this disease - stay away from certain foods - wheat, rye, barley, oats, and several others. It is my choice. I can either avoid these foods and live a fairly healthy life or eat them and get very, very sick. Hmmm…doesn’t that sound like our choice whether to obey God or sin?

While shopping last week, I saw and smelled some delicious looking samples. I dutifully checked the ingredient list - twice - to make sure I could eat it. I didn’t see any off-limits foods. Ohhh, wow, that mini-taco was good! They were hot and cheesy and wonderful. I picked up a box of them to buy. Then, it tasted so good that I wondered if I had checked the ingredients thoroughly enough. When I reread the ingredients, I groaned inside. There it was, buried in the list. I had somehow missed it - wheat flour.

It was just a little bit of wheat flour. I had obviously read the ingredient list too quickly. Would that change the results? No, it wouldn’t. The pleasure of that taco for a moment on my tongue will affect me for the next three to six months. It will affect every part of my life, not just my intestines. My other chronic illnesses will begin to flare up as I get weak which means that in the next few weeks, I will battle stomach-virus like symptoms. Then, for the next three to six months, I will

* gradually become weaker
* have trouble sleeping
* experience weakness in my lungs bringing a constant battle to stay ahead of my asthma
* have increased problems with migraines
* battle cramps and weakness in my muscles
* have bruises all over my body
* have painful sores on my skin
* have the skin on the roof of my mouth peel away
* have pain throughout my body
* have to miss things that I would like to do because I am so tired
* have some of my hair fall out

At first, I look fine - no one can tell anything is wrong. Then, it becomes obvious. Was it worth it? NO! I choose not to eat those foods for a reason. This time, I missed it - not on purpose, but the results are the same.

Sin is very similar. We can choose whether to obey God or to sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].” So, we do have a choice. If we decide to sin, it will

* keep us from the Bread of Life/from learning His Word
* provide momentary pleasure
* make us malnourished spiritually even if we are studying His Word and praying - going through the motions
* have long-term consequences
* affect every area of our life and those around us
* affect us even when we don’t realize that we are sinning by either neglecting His Word or just not paying attention to His Word, our Pastor, Sunday School teachers, parents, etc.
* allow us to “fake” being spiritual for awhile, but then problems will definitely show.

In Isaiah 59:2, it states that our iniquity separates between us and God. Even a small sin, a small moment of disobedience will affect us until we make it right. It is very serious. This sin could be anything that does not honour what God has commanded.

Wow, you say, this is sad and depressing. But wait….that is not the end of the story. Think about 1 John 1:9! “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” For sin, God provides forgiveness, mercy in not giving us the punishment we deserve, and grace in restoring a relationship with Him! What an awesome, wonderful God! This restoration of fellowship is amazing even as we suffer the consequences of our sin. God is patient with us and longs to help us - how awesome!

God is gracious, merciful and patient (Ephesians 1:7, Psalm 69:16, 1Timothy 1:15, 16). As we know Him more, we should draw closer to Him (Ephesians 3:14-20), strive to live a holy life (Romans 6), and treat others with grace, mercy, and patience (Matthew 18:21-35)

What about you? Are you loving God with all your heart, keeping a short account of sin, studying His Word, obeying His commands, and showing His love to others? He has given us so much. He deserves our love! What joy and peace come when we are restored with Him, love Him with our all, and let Him control our lives!