DAY 3

“I Have Been Caught”

Read: John 8:3-4

By Pastor ATP, Esq.

 

There is yet another barrier to the acknowledgment of sin, it is the belief that one will never be caught. When we continue to engage in behavior that is either destructive to our spiritual life and/or our secular goals, and couple that with the belief that there are no repercussions for our actions, we tend to continue the irresponsible behavior. For some of us, the best thing that could have ever happened to us is that we were caught and/or our misguided plans failed miserably. Until we received the wake -up call, we were continuing to walk down a spiraling staircase to nowhere. This is a praise-break moment to thank God for our wake-up call experience.

 

The opportunity for spiritual freedom was given to this woman in the selected passage after she was caught. On a side note, the fact that the man who was committing adultery with her was not also brought for judgment shows, in my opinion, the unfair treatment toward women by the religious leaders in this passage. However, their plans, whether to humiliate her or trip up Jesus regarding the law, totally backfired. First, Jesus restored her dignity, and second, He offered her a chance for a better life by sparing her life.

 

Did she in fact make the best of this opportunity? We will never know. But what we do know is that Jesus offers us all the opportunity to escape death. But some of us would have never changed course had we not experienced everything falling apart. It takes a lot of stubbornness to continue down a path toward destruction after falling on your face. My prayer is that this year those of us who have fallen, will get back up, change directions, and accept the Grace Christ is offering.

 

We have been caught but not for public humiliation or ridicule, although we may experience this, but the primary purpose is for us to live and become who we are created to be. I must stress that the Fresh Start initiative does not just apply to sin issues, but also to any area in our lives where we have not been living up to proper standards. Wherever we have been failing in life, this is the season where we must believe that Christ is telling us that failure will not be the end of your story.

 

The key for today’s devotion is this: the enemy wants our mistakes and/or failures to become our complete downfall, but Jesus wants to use this as an opportunity for us to recover and excel. Let us take advantage of being caught and begin our Fresh Start.

 

Let this be our prayer: “Lord, help me to turn my moments of disaster into a testimony of accepting and acting upon your Grace.”