DON'T EVER LET ME GO
SONG DEVOTIONAL
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John 8:1-11
DON'T EVER LET ME GO - SONG PAGE
Has there ever been a time in your life where you have experienced a personal failure? Have you ever felt like you just keep wrestling with the same struggles? Maybe you are still trying to understand how to live in the grace that God has given you? Well, there is good news… you’re not alone and there is hope.
I think most, if not all of us, have experienced and wrestled that way. I can remember a time in my own life when I was worried that I had just messed up one too many times. I kept falling into the same sins and struggles and I became afraid that God had given up on me.
In John 8, we see a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. In Hebrew culture the punishment for that kind of sin was to be stoned to death. In this situation, we see a crowd condemning her and surrounding her with the threat of this punishment.
In that moment, Jesus steps into the picture and displays something that the people didn’t expect - mercy. The Bible tells us that He knelt to draw in the sand. We don’t know what He wrote, but maybe it was the word mercy. Then Jesus told the crowd that those who were without sin should cast the first stone. At that moment, the case was closed. Jesus displayed His perfect mercy over a woman that deserved to die according to the Law of Moses.
Jesus was showing us why He came. He brings us mercy. He told the woman that she was forgiven and to go and sin no more. Isn’t that the same thing that He is saying to all of us?
You see there’s a new beginning waiting for us in Christ. If you feel like you’ve messed up too many times or you’re not worth saving, that isn’t true. The Lord can drown all your failures in the deepest sea. He can cast your sins as far as the east is from the west. He will not let you go.
When we come to the Lord, broken and contrite, He pours out His great mercy on us. Not only that, He restores us and makes us whole. Only Jesus has the power to make us clean when we are unclean. Only Jesus has the power to make us whole when we are broken. What an amazing hope we have in Him.
If you feel far from the Lord, this is your day to come closer to Him. He is waiting and willing to forgive, heal, and restore you. He won’t let you go.