I like the new commercial about the boy who comes in to tell his parents of the accident he has had in the family car going through this really narrow drive through. He had already called the insurance company and found out they had accident forgiveness and everything was taken care of. No one has ever gone out and intentionally gotten into an accident, even if you were the one who caused it. In the same way, no child of God goes about doing things that are wrong. We intend to do what is right. (1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.) I like to put it this way: I used to be a full-time sinner, and once in a while I accidentally slipped up and did something right. But now that I have spent many years developing a deep, personal relationship with God and His Word, I concentrate on being a full-time obedient child of God. I still make mistakes, but not nearly as many as I once did. I am not where I need to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be. There are times when I accidentally make mistakes, but it is not the desire of my heart to do wrong. I do not deliberately, knowingly commit sin. I do not habitually sin. So, I don’t allow those occasions to make me feel insecure. I don’t do everything right, but I do know that the attitude of my heart is right. Paul said in Romans 7, the things I want to do, I don’t do, and the things I don’t want to do, I end up doing. We plan for right behavior because our hearts are right, but like Paul our plans don’t always work. Thank God for His mercy that is new every day! Pastor Don [image: image.png]