Prepare for Your Grand Finale

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”
—-Matthew 25:21

We live in a culture that celebrates the ability to make snap judgments. Commentators on television instantly decide whether a candidate has won or lost a political debate. Journalists scramble to be first to report on a story. Even best-selling business books tell us that effective executives can size up a situation in a few minutes. But our propensity to make quick judgments can lead to the wrong conclusion, especially when it comes to judging the failures in our lives.

To allow one lapse of judgment, one wrong choice, one squandered opportunity to become the defining event in our lives is shortsighted. Life is vast, yet we tend to judge all of life by one page or one word–only a fragment.

During the past several weeks, we have been comparing our lives to a performance. God has given us 70 or 80 years on the world’s stage to live out the role He has assigned to us. During our performance occasionally we may miss a line or blow a cue, but fortunately the Divine Director does not bring the curtain down. He wants us to have a second-act success in this world–and a joyous eternity in heaven with Him.

No matter what mistakes you have made, you can have a second act in life if you follow the five biblical principles we have been looking at. How do you turn incredible messes into great successes in your life? Let’s spend today reviewing those principles.

First, fess up to your mess up. You have to confess your mistake before you can be forgiven of it.

Second, don’t mess up for free. Yes, failure is inevitable and we are going to pay a price for that failure. But we can learn from our failures instead of repeating those failures.

Third, enjoy your intermission. When we slip up, mess up, or screw up,  many times God will say: You know what? There needs to be a pause, an intermission, a time between your past failure and the future God has for you; but those waiting times don’t have to be wasted times.

Fourth, eventually God says it is time to begin your second act now. We need to be careful to know how to discern when God is telling us it is time to begin our second act.

This week, we are finally ready to look at the final principle of starting your second act in life: prepare for your grand finale.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Prepare for Your Grand Finale!” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2016.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.