That's Once.

               I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)

                First, a side note and answer to prayer. My boss gave me the rest of the week off to recover from my knee “ injury. I’m angry with myself for the injury but I’m grateful to Terry and God for the time. Part of the anger is that the time feels like it’s lost. I don’t get paid and I’m not getting things done at home, either. I’m healing from something I inflicted on myself while trying to fix what I thought was wrong. I think. Stupid, stupid….

                Now, to today’s passage. You know what? Our inflicting something on ourselves while trying to fix something we think is wrong doesn’t terminate our relationship with God. It doesn’t cause us to fall out of His hand. This is similar to the thing I’ve struggled with, and I don’t think I’m the only one. It’s true, not even Satan can snatch us out of God’s hand, but I tend to treat myself as if I can do what no one else can. I can somehow crawl out of God’s hand, and have probably done so by this means or that. We judge ourselves as a prodigal child who has fallen from grace by our own decisions or actions. And if I can do so, can’t anyone else? The reverse logic also works. If we assume others can fall from grace, can’t we also?

                I remember a story that teaches one version of the way we tend to think. A man married a woman and headed home with her. The horse that pulled the cart did something the man didn’t like, and the man said, “That’s once.”

                A short time later, the horse did something wrong, and the man said, “That’s twice.”

                Again, a short time passed, and they were almost to the man’s home. The horse did the same thing wrong, and the man said, “That’s three times,” and pulled out his gun and shot the horse.

                The woman, understandably upset by this event, asked how he could have done it.

                The man replied, “That’s once.”

                This is the attitude we imagine God having toward us. He might forgive us of all manner of things when He invites us to live with Him. But on the way, we do something wrong and He says, “That’s once.” He might not have a limit of three chances, but at some point, the grace runs out. At least some of us claim to know better. We say, “Once saved, always saved,”  based on this passage and others,  but that doesn’t always overcome how we feel. It doesn’t erase our thought habits. That’s the thing, though, they’re habits. We need to renew our minds with the Word, quoting verses like the ones above and teaching ourselves to trust.