WHAT CONSEQUENCES HAVE YOU FACED FROM A LIFE MISTAKE?

WHAT CONSEQUENCES HAVE YOU FACED FROM A LIFE MISTAKE?     Have you paid a costly price for one of your mistakes? Did you learn your lesson fairly quickly, or were you one of God's more stubborn students? Today is as good a day as any to press the pause button on your life and take stock of your past consequences. Doing so can prevent similar, future consequences that could delay God's plan for your life.     ONCE YOU'VE BEEN THERE, YOU NEVER WANT TO GO BACK     Have you faced consequences like debt, broken trust, or a ruined reputation? Have you dealt with consequences such as bitterness, illness, someone's death, addiction, lost wages, or rumors? Have you faced hatred, guilt, shame, regrets, missed opportunities, or the need for forgiveness? Have you lost your joy, needed to repent and to pay retribution, had your freedom taken away, or faced delays? Jill Savage, author of Professionalizing Motherhood, tells how consequences for her actions taught her about truth.       JILL SAVAGE'S CONSEQUENCES WERE NOT SO INCONSEQUENTIAL     Jill founded Hearts at Home, an organization that encourages women in the profession of motherhood. She is a passionate speaker and the author of three books on motherhood, marriage, and mom's groups. Married twenty years, she and her husband Mark have five children and are helping to start a church in central Illinois.     When Jill was nineteen, she clearly remembers the movement she made away from religion toward a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. She is deeply grateful for the truth God shared with her at that time and for its relevance and impact on her life. After having two children, she felt led by God to give up her beloved career as a music teacher and to stay home with a joy-filled spirit to raise her family. She came to understand that life purposes don't always show up in big ways announced by fanfare, but are often right in front of us in the daily arenas of life. She discovered, for example, that ministering to her husband and children is among the most important and precious life purposes she has. After some transitional time in her new season of life, God asked Jill to encourage other wives and mothers to more thoroughly enjoy their roles.     Jill knows that she wasn't always a likely candidate for such a huge assignment from God. When she began her role as a wife, she had a critical, judgmental spirit. Her husband's emotionally unhealthy childhood made it very easy for her to blame him for their problems, despite his protests. This robbed their early marriage of its life and love. Then she learned to apply Matthew 7:5 to her life: "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (NASB). Over time, her marriage turned around. She believes that God allowed her another chance because he wanted her to tell others about his incredible mercy.     She warns: "You will experience painful consequences as long as you live outside of God's truth. My marriage, for example, was damaged by my sin, until the unbearable consequences drove me to truth."     What Consequences Have You Faced from a Life Mistake?     Zechariah Faced Consequences     Zechariah was not able to speak until the eighth day after his son was born, because he had not believed the words of the angel Gabriel. Zechariah's consequences were severe, but he definitely learned his lesson. Read Luke 1:5–68. How do you feel about severe consequences?     SCRIPTURE TO PONDER     But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)       SUGGESTED PRAYER     Dear Lord my God, so that my iniquities do not separate me from you; so that my sins will not cause you to hide your face from me and not hear me, I, _________, want to tell you how sorry I am for my sins. Please forgive me today and shower me with unmerited grace. Thank you that you, as my good and loving Father, discipline me. Help me grow more than I could ever imagine through consequences that are sent by or allowed by you. Only you offer freedom, healing, hope, and a secure future—before, during, and after the necessary consequences. And, for those consequences I have faced that were not caused by sin in my life, thank you for seeing me through.     So . . . What Insight, Prayer, or Action Step Has God Laid on Your Heart Today?

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