We're focusing on God's guidance for flourishing families. But what if you've been a disobedient child, a lousy parent, or an unbearable spouse? What is the Lord's message for a failure like you? His message is that he already knows the worst about you, but he still offers you the best.

He offers you living water (his Holy Spirit) to satisfy your deepest thirst and give you eternal life. Even though you have sinned grievously against God, he calls you to become the kind of worshiper the Father is seeking. Even though you can't save yourself, Jesus tells you that he is the Savior you need.

Consider the bad Samaritan. She gets divorced five times, then moves in with a guy without getting married. God is offended by couples living together without marriage (1 Corinthians 7:2,9), and he hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). That sounds like big trouble for this woman. She has a long record of breaking God's law, and her ideas about religion are mixed up. Jesus knows all this, yet he loves her deeply and reaches out to her. He identifies her sins and makes her face her failure, yet he invites her to enjoy eternal life, to worship God, and to recognize him as her Messiah. Soon she leads her village to the Savior. She's no longer a failure but a partner in Jesus' mission. If the Lord could give the bad Samaritan new life, he can give it to anyone--even you, even me.

PRAYER--God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Thank you for amazing grace to save a wretch like me. Fill me with your Spirit, that I may go and sin no more. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.