“May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us.”—Psalm 67:1 (NLT)
Have you ever been shown undeserved favor from someone you didn’t know? It happened to me last week on my way to go visit my daughter in Wichita. I am going to be completely transparent. I have a BAD habit of rolling through stop signs. Many times, if there aren’t any cars coming, I will do more of a yield than a stop.
On my way out of my neighborhood, maybe a mile from my house, I was quickly pulled over by our local police for rolling through a stop sign. As soon as I saw the flashing lights behind me, I knew why. All I was thinking was, this is not a good way to start my trip.
On top of that, when I pulled out my insurance card for him, I soon realized I had replaced my new card for my old one, I wasn’t paying attention and picked up my expired card to put in my wallet. Which meant I had been driving around for 5 months with an expired insurance card.
The officer graciously told me if I had it on my phone that would work too. He said he would leave me to find it while he ran my license and plates. Thankfully, I did have the AAA app on my phone, but apparently when my phone updated, it logged me out of the app and of course, I had no idea what my password was for it. Could this stop get any worse for me?
The police officer asked if I had found my card and I told him, no,my app logged me out and I don’t know the password. At this point my hands are shaking and I am a wreck. Imagine my surprise, when he handed me back my license with a warning ticket. Thankfully, when he ran my license/plates it also pulled up my insurance.
I thanked him for his grace and told him he did me a favor because I was on my way out-of-town and needed to turn around and go back home for my current card. Seriously, I was not expecting that. Not only could he have given me the ticket for not stopping but also for not having proof of valid insurance.
On top of this, my original ETA to arrive in Wichita was 2:41 pm. After being pulled over and going back home, it was a 30-minute delay. However, when I plugged my phone back in as I was leaving, my arrival time was now 2:20 pm! You just never know when God’s grace is going to seep into your life. Who would have thought I would be thanking God for getting pulled over by a police officer?
And…now I come to a complete stop at EVERY stop sign! I know if it were to happen again, they would see the warning ticket and my punishment would be a ticket. Not so with God and His grace. When I sin and repent, I am forgiven. My slate is clean.
This isn’t a free pass for me to sin again and again. However, I am human. We all have bad days. We live in a fallen world. I am thankful for the grace, love and mercy of God who doesn’t give me the deserved punishment.
This is why I have such a heart to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. They can have this same gift of God’s grace in their lives too.
Our church’s women’s event, Summer Splash is this Tuesday. As of today, I have given away all but one of my 10 prayer cloths along with the invitation to it. So far, those who have received one have been open and have genuinely thanked me for it. I continue to pray that hearts will be pricked to either watch the event online or go in person.
Father God,
Thank You for Your love, grace and mercy for a sinner like me. I know I won’t always get it right and what a comfort to know when I come to You in true repentance, my sins are forgiven. I continue to ask for boldness to share Your love with those who may not know You. I ask for hearts to be pricked wth the seeds I am planting to draw them to Christ. I pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
June Verse
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”—Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)
If you are knitting or crocheting gifts to give away, please make sure you tweet @KnitPrayShare or share your projects on the Knit, Pray, Share Facebook page or Instagram using the hashtag #KnitPrayShare. Be sure to attach a tag to whatever gift you make.