This is the third and final article about being “imprisoned by your past.” Last month we talked about how you can break the power of the past if you remember that all sin is past sin where God is concerned. Based on that understanding, this month I want to tell you that in Christ Jesus all your yesterday’s have already been anticipated and reckoned with or accounted for, which makes our Gospel the gospel of the “Eternal Second Chance.”

Let me give you a Biblical example of what I mean. In Mark 14:27-31 Jesus informs His disciples that He will be arrested and that all of them would run away. Peter upon hearing this says, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” Our Lord’s response to Peter was “this very night, before a cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” Upon hearing this Peter becomes more insistent and said, “even if he had to die with Jesus, he would never deny Him.” But, if you read Mark 14:66-72, Peter amid his good intentions and positive confession trips over his own fears and flesh and denies the Lord three times. Which leaves him disappointed with himself, disillusioned with his faith which results in a deep depression.

I don’t know about you, but I can relate to Peter, but I can relate to Peter, because I, like Peter have not always lived up to my own commitments. I have said one thing and done another. This can be pretty disheartening especially when you had every intention of doing what you said. It can be distressful when you know you have let the Lord down especially after making such a show that you wouldn’t.

The most difficult thing to deal with is wondering how the Lord is going to relate to you now that you have failed and disappointed Him. Mark 16:6-7 says, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He is risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter. He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.” In this passage are two words that I never noticed before until recently. And though it’s just two words, the message they communicate speaks volumes about how God feels toward someone who has not only failed Him, but who has also failed himself. The two words that I’m referring to are the words “and Peter.” Peter was off somewhere in depression, feeling like his failure had disqualified him from any further intimacy with God and service for God. But these angels at the tomb went out of their way to re-include Peter. It was like all of heaven had seen Peter fall and all of heaven wanted to help him back up. The angels wanted Peter to know that a failure doesn’t make a flop.

It’s not every day you find someone who is willing to give you a second chance much less someone who will give you a second chance every day. In Jesus Peter found both and so can you.

In closing let me share with you an encouraging insight from Jeremiah 18:1-6 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Isreal.” In verses 3 & 4 it states that “as the potter begins to work on the clay that the clay can sometimes become marred in the hand of the potter.”How many of you can relate to the fact that as the Lord begins to work on some aspect of your life, whether it be your marriage, your finances, your purity, etc., and improvement is being made, but then you do something stupid and it undoes all the effort that was made or “it becomes marred in the hand of the potter?”

If that is you, then I want you to be encouraged by the response of the potter to the marred clay, in verse 4, it says “so He made it again.” The Lord’s response to your failure if you get back up is no problem, “I’ll just make it again.” When your marriage becomes marred because of tripping over your flesh, then repent, get back up and the Lord will start gain. When your finances become marred because of some stupid decision on your par, then repent, get back up and the Lord will start again. When your purity is marred because of some temptation that you yielded to, then repent, get back up and the Lord will start again. Proverbs 24:16 says, “though a righteous man falls seven times he rises again.”

If you can hear this, it will set you free from the failures of yesterday and allow you to begin afresh today. Remember it’s not every day that you find someone who will give you a second chance much less a second chance every day. In Jesus you find both.