Romans 5:20 NLT God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.

Whether we just got saved yesterday or have been saved for 20+ years, some part of us wants to honor God. We want to pray more, behave appropriately, trust God more, seek His counsel in all our decisions, control our emotions, etc. As we make the effort to honor God, there may be times we miss the mark. We may have wanted to be calm, but we lost our cool with that person. We wanted to be celibate, but our flesh won the battle.

If we miss the mark, most people do one of two things. They either beat themselves up and allow Satan to run a guilt trip on them or they give up trying to honor God in that area because they feel it’s too difficult to uphold.

A third option is to let grace abound. God knew we would miss the mark on our journey. That’s why He sent His Son Jesus. Jesus paid the price for all (past, present, and future) of our mess ups (1 Peter 3:18). Through Jesus, we’ve already been forgiven of everything we’ll ever do.

So if you miss the mark, don’t allow yourself to feel guilty and don’t quit making the effort to honor God. Receive God’s grace for that mistake and move on. Immediately after the mistake literally say, “God, I receive your grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ” and go on with your life knowing your sin has been forgiven and forgotten (Hebrews 8:12).