The God of Another Chance: How to Get Back on TrackSample

You're in Good Company

The Bible is full of people who got second chances, and even third and fourth chances. Look at the Apostle Peter. He denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26:74-75) but put it behind him and went on to serve God in a powerful ministry. Not very long after he denied Jesus, he preached a sermon on the day of Pentecost that won 3,000 people to the Lord (Acts 2:40-41). 

Look at Jonah, who refused to obey God’s orders to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:1-3). In one of the Bible’s most famous stories, he landed in the belly of a giant fish (v. 17). But the story didn’t end there. Jonah asked God to forgive him, the fish vomited him onto the beach (Jonah 2:10), and he got a second chance to obey. He went and preached to Nineveh, where there was a great revival and the Bible says “all the people believed” (Jonah 3:5-10).  

One of my favorite second-chance Bible stories is about Mark. This young man traveled with the Apostle Paul on his first missionary journey, but he let Paul down one time when he left the team in a lurch; he just took off when they were in Pamphylia (Acts 15:37-38). It made Paul mad enough to fire him. Paul and Barnabas argued over it so vehemently that Paul and Barnabas parted company, Barnabas took Mark, and they went off on their own missionary journey (Acts 15:39-40). 

But that’s not the end of the story. Years later, toward the end of Paul’s life, he wrote to Timothy, “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11).  

Look at that! We don’t know exactly what transpired during the years in between, but obviously Paul gave Mark a second chance somewhere along the way. And Mark took it. He must have repented and worked hard, earning his way back into Paul’s favor, so much so that at the end of his life Paul declared Mark was useful to him. This infers that all was forgiven and Mark had gone on to be a productive minister. All the bad decisions were left behind. Mark got back up and his bad decisions didn’t end up disqualifying him.