April 22

God's Grace

Failure and Forgiveness

“You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding
in love.” Nehemiah 9:17c (NIV)

My friend “VaTate” (vah-TAH-tay) was admitted to the hospital on
the same day as his death. His daughter-in-law was also ill, but she remained
at the hospice with a broken femur bone.
When I found out, I decided to visit the daughter-in-law. She lay
on a grass mat on the hospice floor. I knelt beside the mat and shared
my condolences about her father-in-law, her sick husband and herself.
Inside I was angry with myself for not visiting them earlier.
I had thought to visit earlier, knowing VaTate was not well, but for
the last few days I had made every excuse not to go—the heat, the flies,
the stench, the pain and the suffering. So I missed the burial of my friend.
In fact, I found out that no one went to VaTate’s burial since all his relatives
were ill. I felt like a failure.

“Lord,” I prayed, “please redeem my mistakes and forgive me for this.
I knowingly chose my own comfort over You.”
VaTate had become a Christian. Every time I visited him, I found
him sitting in his broken chair, too swollen to eat or sleep but hungrily
devouring God’s Word in his Lozi (LOW-zee) Bible. Happily, he
would say, “I am trusting Christ alone!”

I failed my friend the week he died, but thankfully he was not trusting
in me. He was trusting in the One who never fails. Sometimes I feel
like a big flop, but praise God, I know that Jesus forgives my failures.

—Stacey, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa

Father, forgive me when I choose my own comfort instead of obeying You. Thank
You for cleansing me of my sin and forgiving my failures. Use missionaries in
western Zambia to bring the Lozi to Christ so that they might know the love
and mercy that You offer. Amen.


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