This is the Promises of God Podcast and I’m your host, Tracie Rollins. This podcast is about you, your ability to hear and believe and take action on God’s promises in your life because all of God’s promises are yes and amen. Resources mentioned in today’s episode can be found on PromisesofGodPodcast.com. Now, let’s get started.
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 17. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about grace, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.Com titled Saved by Grace, and you can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day Bible journaling course. Our focus for today is God’s great grace in our verse is Joel 2:13, and it reads out of the King James version and wrench your heart and not your garments in turn into the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repented him of the evil. Our God is a gracious God. He’s not like our world. Well, there are people in this world that are great at giving grace. Oh, I love them, but it’s very rare to find someone like that. We do get some grace in this world, but it is not the same kind that God gives.
As we talk today about Grace and what it is and what it means and things in your life, think about a time that you made a mistake in your life. For me, I’ve made a lot of errors. I’m not going to lie. I am over 40 years old and those years are filled with many, many mistakes. I remember one time when I was young; I was probably 12 at the time, um, my parents decided that it would be movie time. We were going to go to the movies and for us going to the film was a big deal. We didn’t get to go often, It was costly, and our Funds were non-existent. And so when we got to do things like go to the movies, it was so exciting. And so my dad, I think I remember him coming into the room, and he was like, let’s see a movie. Would you like to go And immediately I said yes? And everything that was in my head, all plans, all appointments, all, anything that I had as a 12-year-old went out the door. Um, I forgot about everything I was supposed to do that day, so we hopped in the car, we went to the movies, and we had a great time. Um, I remember just being so happy seeing the film with my family. I remember getting in a car and driving home, and it was just a great day until I actually came home and the voice message machine back then we called it an answering machine. It was a square box set on my dad, and mom’s on the side of their bed. It was brown. It had a red, blinky light and if the red blinky light was blinking, that meant you had a message.
And so we arrived home, and my dad proceeded to listen to the messages as he always did. And the next thing I heard was Tracie, get over here. And you need to hear that message. I’m sure I do not do an excellent job of my dad’s voice. But as a 12-year-old, that is how I heard it. And so we played the message, and he sat next to me as he played the message and my face turned white. There was a woman on the other line live it upset, just completely mad because I had missed a babysitting appointment that I had booked. And as soon as I heard her voice, I remembered that I was supposed to babysit and I had felt just completely awful. And I don’t know; I don’t know. I don’t know as a 12-year-old how, how bad any 12-year-old could fill, but I was feeling really bad. And so my dad looked at me, and he said, you’re going to go over to her house now, and you’re going to apologize to her face. No telephone, no writing a letter. I had to walk over to her house literally, and she lived about a couple of blocks away. So I remember the walk to her home. It was not fast, It was slow, and I was regretting every single second of it. But I did what my dad told me to do. So I knocked on the door, and she answered, and she looked at me. And the look on her face was of discussed. I mean, she was so mad at me, I can’t even explain to you how crazy this woman was, and she proceeded before I could get out a word to let me have it. Everything that you could think of, any one person would tell a young 12-year-old, even though maybe you wouldn’t tell 12-year-old debt.
But she, she handed it to me. She served it up. And um, yeah, I, um, said that I was sorry. And I apologized and offered to babysit her kids for free. And she said she wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t trust me again. It would never happen again. She had to hire her sister. They had these expensive tickets to the play, and now she had to get her sister to come over to watch him. And I could forget about ever watching her kids again. And she immediately slammed the door in my face. And that was hard. I think I was crying. I’m confident. I was crying at the time. I remember sulking my head down and walking back home crying, and as I walked past that, we used to have these mailboxes where we would retrieve our males. I saw my flyer on there with my phone number so that people could call me for babysitting. And I remember staring at that flier and feeling this massive disappointment in myself. I was distraught that I had forgotten this appointment and felt kind of unworthy of babysitting. Again. I think that’s pretty much the feeling that I had, and it was just a tough time. I believe what she did to me, uh, was deserved. I think that you know, I, I definitely should have kept my appointment. Could the delivery have been a little bit different Probably, but I got what I deserved. I made a commitment for God. It caused her all kinds of problems, he would not hire me ever again, and I got what I deserved. I would have to say I honestly did get what I deserved, but in thinking about that moment, I am so thankful that God does not give me what I deserve.
He does not give us what we deserve. When we cry out, we repent. We turn to him. He welcomes us home; we pray to him, we say, sorry, we turned around. We make the same mistake again. We say sorry, and we keep trying and trying and trying, and he always welcomes us back home with open arms. I can’t tell you just how awesome it is to have a god like that. So this week I hope that you will take some time to write in your journal. I mean, how do you feel about God’s grace and maybe you can share a time when you didn’t receive grace from others or maybe you have met someone in your life that just is amazing at giving grace and and maybe you have a great example of when you ask for grace and she gave it to you or he gave it to you just as you would pitch your God to give it to you like how awesome is that To have somebody in your life that does that How does it feel knowing that God provides grace even when we don’t deserve it To me, it’s amazing. Grace. If you’re here today and you’re struggling with either giving or receiving grace, maybe you’ve never experienced grace in your life. Perhaps nobody has ever given you the grace that you don’t deserve. Maybe you’ve been mistreated or unloved, or you’re hurting because you just never have had or had the opportunity or don’t have it regularly in your life. When you make a mistake in the world comes down on you. When you make a mistake, maybe you come down on you. Well, I pray that you would invite God into your life today because I feel like if you knew the God that I serve, that you would feel so much joy and peace in your life and you would understand what I’m saying when he provides the grace that no others can give.
If you do know God in his love in your life, but maybe you strayed, perhaps you’ve just life has gotten busy and you’re, you know, having a hard time, and perhaps you’re just having a great time and have forgotten about God. I would encourage you to come back to him. You’re not promised tomorrow and life is so short. Don’t put it off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I can’t wait to see you on the next episode of the Promises of God. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the Promises of God Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at the PromisesofGodPodcast.com.