When You Spill Your Milk
|
I could not help but notice the family sitting next to me in the restaurant one day. The harried looking mother was trying to corral her rambunctious preschoolers and get them to eat. Suddenly one of the little girls spilled her milk. As the milk ran over the table, spilling onto the floor the mother yelled, in exasperation, “You’re a bad girl! Now sit there until everyone else finishes.” It was all I could do to restrain myself as I looked at the sobbing littler girl and the angry mother. I wanted so much to tell the mother that her little girl was not a bad girl for spilling her milk. Perhaps she needed reassurance that she was loved and that she should be more careful the next time. Would the little girl grow up thinking that every time she spilled her milk or made a mistake that she was bad, no good, worthless, or unloved? |
What about you? Does God still love you when you “spill your milk”? Sadly, many perhaps feel like the little girl felt when she spilled her milk. You may say, “You don’t understand. What I did was far more serious and tragic than spilling some milk.” Yes, that is probably true. But as Corrie Ten Boom loved to remind people, “There is no pit nor sin that God’s grace is not deeper still.”
When we make a mistake, fail, or sin, the devil delights to heap condemnation upon us. The enemy of our soul does not want us to know that even though God is a holy and just God, He is also merciful and forgiving. He pardons our sins when we repent and confess that we have sinned. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9-10).
King David sinned grievously against God and man. Lust, adultery, lies, murder, and much more put a dark stain on his life and career. When David prayed a prayer of repentance and confession, he found God’s mercy and restoration. (See Psalm 51.)
David declares in Psalm 103, “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear him . . . Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.”
Does God still love you when you “spill your milk”? Ask Peter. Jesus foretold that Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crowed. Did Jesus disown or write Peter off? No. Even though he knew that Peter would deny Him, Jesus said, “Peter, I have prayed for you . . . when you are converted (restored), . . . strengthen thy brethren” (see Luke 22:31-32).
Does God still love you when you have “spilled your milk”? We have a Savior whose sacrifice made atonement for all our sins. Bleeding and in agony, with forces of hell raging against Him, Jesus, the Lamb of God asked for mercy, not for Himself, but for you and me saying, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). Now we must respond to that work of atonement in order to receive mercy.
Charles Wesley expressed his response to God’s mercy in the words to his hymn “Amazing Love”:
“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain – for me, who Him to death pursued?”
Wesley understood that mercy is undeserved forgiveness. Let us always rejoice and give thanks that Jesus has given us the opportunity to escape wrath and judgment and obtain mercy.
How?
A - Admit you have sinned. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
B – Believe in Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
C - Confess and leave your sins. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us form al unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9-10
by: Cliff Sanders