There is not one person living that has never messed up, some messed up more than others, but the thing is, we all have messed up at one time or another. Stop beating yourself up if you can’t resolve what you did or said; ask God to forgive you. If you need to ask someone for forgiveness, do it and go on with life.

God has given us grace, meaning because of His Son, Jesus, the wrath of God will not come upon us as it did in the Old Testament dispensation. This grace does not mean we should continue to mess up. Since God has given us grace, shouldn’t we extend it to others?

Jacob requested Esau to give him his birthright for some pottage. Jacob then stole Esau’s blessings from his father, Isaac. Jacob had to leave his father’s house because Esau was going to kill him once their father died.

On the run from his brother, he had an encounter with the Lord, and his life changed from a trickster to a godly man. The Lord knew what Jacob had done but didn’t hold it against him. Jacob Prayed and asked God to keep him safe, give him food and raiment, and bless him to return to his father’s house in peace; he made a vow; if the Lord would do so, the Lord would be his God.

God answered Jacob’s prayer; he blessed him richly, and he returned to his father’s house in peace. Joseph’s brother sold him to the Ishmaelites, for twenty pieces of silver. The Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh. Potiphar’s wife lied on Joseph, saying he tried to rape her, and he was thrown in prison. After all of this, Joseph didn’t hate his brothers, and he didn’t forsake them when they were in need of food because of the famine.

Jacob messed up, but God changed him. Joseph’s brother’s messed up, but Joseph forgave them; people can change. It’s not left up to us, how they will change, when they will change, or even if they will change. Give them the same grace God has given you. You don’t have to be running buddies with them, and you don’t even have to like them, but you must love them according to the commandments of the Lord.

We can’t see into the hearts or minds of people unless the Father gives us a peek at what’s going on in their minds and hearts. We’re not their God nor their Lord, and it’s not left up to us to judge them; we’re to pray for them and treat them with loving kindness the same way the Lord has done and is doing with us.

When people act the way they do, something has happened in their lives, called cause and effect. Our responsibility as Christians is to pray that God would heal them from whatever caused them to act as they are. Don’t kick them to the side; they could just be the thorn the Lord has placed in your flesh.

We all have messed up, and some make it a continuation, but God does not throw us to the curb, and say I will not have anything else to do with them, no, He continues to draw us with His loving-kindness, He continues to bless us because that’s the kind of love He has for His people. Shouldn’t we do the same with others if we say, we’re the children of God?

God gets in the mess and makes it clean like all of us were before He cleaned us!