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School of Hard Knocks

I have said before that God does not intend for any of us to live our lives in light of the worst thing we have ever done. Repentance means we have turned away from our failures and selfish impulses, and God's grace means that we are not only forgiven, but made new as well. God uses the experience of sin and failure, combined with our repentance and His grace, to mold us into something new and different, something and someone we would not have become otherwise.

Psalm 119:66-68, 71 says, "Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."

I recognize that some of us only learn the hard way. And some things can only be brought to the surface of our lives if we are afflicted and experience the process of repentance and grace. But, I am not rejoicing in your affliction unless it results in your learning from it. Allow God to get you up, dust you off, learn your lesson well, rejoice in God's grace and in the rightness of His ways, and then keep walking, walking away from sin and towards our Lord.

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