But by God’s grace, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.   1 Corinthians 15:10 HCSB

I don’t know about you, but I have seen people do things and thought, “Oh, I would never do that!” But then I did. I am a fan of true crime shows and many of these people say, “I never thought that would happen to me.”

I have learned that our Scripture passage describes my life perfectly. You may have heard it said, “But for the grace of God, go I” I have learned that it is only God’s grace that allows me to do the things I do. I have learned that it is only God’s grace that forgave me of my sins and did not give me over to my evil desires at a time in my life when I was in bondage to sin.

I try not to judge others for their sins. I do, however, sometimes have a broken heart when I see friends and family fall. I have also learned that if I love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me, it changes my heart. I no longer gloat when they fall (Proverbs 24:17). This isn’t me, this is God. I could never have done that on my own and believe me it has taken a lot of prayer.

I have come to realize, however, that I have failed friends and loved ones. One friend has been weighing on my heart recently. I talked to this friend as he was slipping away from the Lord. I was in shock at how his life had changed. Did I confront Him gently as the Bible tells us we should? No. I let the opportunity pass. This is not a friend I see often, but I could have called him. I could have asked him to meet with me for coffee, but I failed to do so.

I knew where his continued sin would lead, I’d been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. I knew it would only bring more heartache. I failed him and I also feel I failed God. Maybe I could call him now, but what would I say? “Oh sorry, I didn’t have this talk with you a couple of years ago before everything fell apart.”

When we stop realizing that what we do and all the good things we have are by God’s grace, we fall into pride. And the Bible tells us pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

If we continue to sin, we can expect judgment (Hebrews 10:26). And if we reject Christ, God will eventually give us over to our evil desires (Romans 1:20-24).

No good comes from our sinning. If you have picked yourself up and turned to God, that’s great. But your job is not done. You have to love your enemies. You may not trust them enough to spend time with them, but you need to love them enough to pray for them at the very least. You need to pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44 specifically instructs us to do so.

I can’t even remember if I prayed for my friend. He hadn’t hurt me, but it was obvious he had lost his way and was in grave danger of reaping what he had sown.

We must realize it is only by God’s grace that we draw our next breath. It is in His power that we live and breathe and do the things we do. It is by His goodness that we have what we need. We must do all we can to honor Him. We must recognize this and be willing to use it as a testimony to others.

Most importantly, we must never look at what someone else has done wrong and judge them and say something like, “That would never happen to me.” None of us know what our future holds, but we must cling to the hand of the One who holds our future. We must trust in Him and love Him with our whole hearts.

My friend, I’m here to tell you if you don’t stay strong in Jesus Christ, you are in danger of falling. And yes, it could happen to you. Give your life over to Him today and trust in Him to take good care of you.

Have a good day!