An Opportunity To Change

And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." John 8: 11

The Lord Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." John 8: 11. The phrase "neither do I condemn you" is a picture of the Lord's grace and mercy to the people who fall or live in sin. "Go and sin no more" is actually an opportunity to correct something or to start all over again to live an honorable life for the Lord. The Lord did not say, "I've already changed all the systems in your body so you'll never know how to sin anymore. Go and from today onwards you will live without sin."

No my friend, the Lord never said that but by His grace He forgives us "Neither do I condemn you," and He always gives us another opportunity to "Go and sin no more" and to change and to become more like Him. Why am I bringing this up? It is because many people are waiting and expecting God to come down from heaven to change them. Their prayer goes something like this, "Lord change me… Lord make me… Lord use me…" but they never take the step of faith and use the opportunity that the Lord has given them to make a change or to do something about it. Some time ago I prayed this prayer, "Lord, help me to be a loving person and make me to be more like you,". Not long after that I faced many difficult people in life and they really gave me a hard time.

During that time I wondered why all this was happening to me and I questioned why I had to face difficult people in life. One day the Lord revealed the answer to me by reminding me about my prayer to love people and to be like Him. He allowed the difficult people to come into my life so that I could have an opportunity to learn to love even difficult people and learn to be a forgiving person like Him. After a long process of learning, I finally realized that God did give me an opportunity to change. He did not change me immediately when I prayed such a prayer but He gave me an opportunity to learn to love these difficult people.

If you are praying for patience, God will never change you immediately to be a patient person but He will give you an opportunity to learn to be patient. If you are praying to be a forgiving person, then He will give an opportunity to be a forgiving person. If you are praying to be a generous person, then He will give you an opportunity to be generous. When you ask for forgiveness for the mistakes that you have made, surely He will forgive you "neither do I condemn you" and He will give you an opportunity to "go and sin no more."