Checking the due date …

During tough times, many people check the fine print for “grace periods.”

Rent is due when? But there’s a grace period of five days? They target the fifth day of the grace period before parting with their much needed cash.

The car payment is due when?

The credit card bill has to be paid on what day?

The utility bill is due in full by what day?

When does the grace period end?

You make a mistake at work. The first time it’s overlooked. The second time it’s discussed. The third time an Action Plan is put together. There’s a grace period.

When times are tough, when mistakes are made, we sometimes need a grace period.

Nothing could be more true about that than life itself.

Job put it this way: “People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire,” Job 5:7.

We’re good at getting into trouble. It’s natural for us. We may want to change, we may want to be “better” people, but we find trouble wherever it lurks.

You give in once again. You stumble again. You fall again. You fail again. You sin again.

You need a grace period.

God offers one.

“But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent,” 2 Peter 3:8-9.

God is patient in offering us another day to come to repentance; to surrender our bent to trouble for a new life in Christ. Have you responded to His offer? Or are you trying to stretch His grace period?

Scotty