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

Forget It

I meet a lot of people who are living by that old saying, “You made this bed, now you have to lie in it.” But I can’t find that in the Bible anywhere. Nowhere does God says, “Too bad you’ve had a setback or you made that wrong decision. Now you’re disqualified; it’s over for you.” No! In fact I read in Ephesians 2:4 that He is rich in mercy and loves you greatly. He’s more than willing to give you another chance and help you get back on track. He’s ready to help you make your comeback!

It’s one thing when something bad happens that derails you, and then it’s a whole different thing when you end up stuck because of something you yourself did—especially if you knew better. It’s easy to beat up on yourself, but that’s not going to help you move forward. God’s not holding it against you; don’t hold it against yourself.

So what should you do if you’ve made a wrong decision? Ask God to forgive you and help you get back on track. Now, I know there are those who might say it’s not that simple, especially if there are other people involved. Granted, your wrong decision may have set off a chain of events that can’t be reversed, and maybe there are a lot of lives, yours included, that have been affected very badly. 

But we can’t rewrite the past, or take back those wrong decisions. Beating ourselves up over it isn’t going to change anything, and it’s going to hinder us (and probably others) from moving forward. It’s also going to make us miserable.

What’s done is done. We have to go on from here. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). It might sound impossible to just forget it but if Paul did it, you can too. That’s what the Bible says, so it must be doable!