When We Make Mistakes

“Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” - Psalm 37:24

After a mistake has been made we can feel shame, sadness, regret, despair, hopeless. Mistakes are a path many try to avoid in life. I don’t know about you but I would very much like big flashing arrows pointing to mistakes in an obvious way, because sometimes those red flags are not so easy to see. But there is a reason why those arrows do not exist. There are moments we need to stumble on to that mistake. Even though some mistakes should never have been made to begin with, take heart my friend. There are 3 things God does with mistakes. 

God will block us from making that mistake. Just as a parent sees their toddler about to go head first into a huge puddle, God grabs us before we can go flying into ours. Before he was Paul, Saul was on his way to make a huge mistake.  “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.” (‭‭Acts‬ ‭9‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬) His mission was to kill anyone who chose Jesus as the messiah. That bright light was his rude awakening closing the door he was trying to walk through. Our door closing may not be as scary but it will still be a door closing. A job opening that is no longer in our favor. A relationship that abruptly ends. An opportunity that shifts to someone else. These are other examples of how God is trying to stop us from getting hurt or going the wrong way or guiding us to where we need to be. Saul was blinded and witnessed how majestic God is and it changed his life, even his name! There are some mistakes that we don’t know He has blocked us from either. Maybe that delay in traffic saved you from an accident. God is constantly working in our lives. 

God will teach us through that mistake. Jonah made a mistake. He ran from God’s assignment. His mistake did not begin with the act of running but the reason why he ran. He felt the people of Nineveh did not deserve to be saved. “He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (‭‭Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬) This same God in all of His grace and compassion taught Jonah a lesson. As Jonah sat pouting God grew a plant to give him shade from the sun. But the next day he sent a worm to kill that same plant and left him in the scorching sun. Jonah became mad that God would kill this plant. His selfish nature was being exposed. “But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”” (‭‭Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬). In our selfishness and naïveté God has patience with us and shows us through others in our lives where we were wrong. He teaches us lessons through our experiences not to punish us but to show us His love for us. 

God will take that mistake and turn it into something good. David made a mistake. He made quite a few actually. It’s like he fell down the rabbit hole of mistakes in one week. Not only did he stay behind from war, he then slept with another man’s wife. Then tried to deceive this man and when that didn’t work he just had that man killed and kept his wife. Where to begin? This was a man after God’s heart and boy did God tell him how disappointed he was. David had to face the consequences of his actions. He repented. He fasted. He lost his son. His mistakes hurt him. But with time something else happened. He was blessed. Solomon, the next king and wisest man to ever live, was born out of that relationship. God took his mistake, and after David’s repentance, God forgave him and turned it to good. Your mistake is not the end for you. Something good will still come from this. But don’t forget to apologize and ask God to forgive you. You can’t expect to sin against God and carry on with your life. Just like you can’t expect to hurt a friend and move on without an apology and forgiveness.

So don’t write yourself off as a failure. Your story continues on. Thank Him for guiding you, protecting you or turning it around for you. He will always have your back through it all. He may get dissappointed but nothing will ever take HIs love away from you.