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Can You Repeat That?

  • November 5, 2026
  • Posted by: Carolyn Mahal
  • Category: Devotions
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“…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” – Romans 5:8

The gospels are four separate accounts of the same story – the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are a few stories that get covered twice in the Bible like this one told in Mark 12 and Luke 21. But four versions of the same story could be considered a great deal of overkill – until you think about it.

When you were in school, you learned that if the teacher or professor repeated something more than once, it was an important point that would likely come back to you in the form of a test question. You also learned that a good teacher is unafraid to repeat information and share it in multiple ways to ensure the learner has acquired the skill or retained the information.

There is importance in something that is repeated. God gives us His word through the scriptures. More specifically, He shares the story of Jesus with us in the four gospels. The Bible is critically important to us because it provides guidance, wisdom, life, and most of all, salvation to those who hear and believe it. Still don’t believe me? Think about the importance of something you have said and have heard hundreds of times in your life…

I love you.

Is that an important phrase? It certainly is. Remember back to the time when you first realized that you had fallen in love with someone.  Did you wrestle with saying it – not knowing if you should because once you spoke those words, your relationship with that person would change forever? Do you remember hearing it for the first time from someone you loved?  It was an amazing feeling; one that exceeded any other compliments or pleasantries you’ve heard before. Is there anyone who is tired of being told they are loved? Of course not. Parents remember the first time they hear their child tell say, “I love you,” but they also yearn for the next time as well. That’s because unlike so many other things in life that grow old over time, those eight amazing letters will always mean the world to us.

Having established the significance of sharing the love we have for the people in our lives, let’s apply this to our relationship with God. Let’s begin with how God feels about us.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” Jesus’s words to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John demonstrate how much God loves us. Combine that with Paul’s words in Romans 5:8; “…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” and we have clear evidence of how God feels about us. Knowing this, we shouldn’t be surprised that God would provide us with multiple opportunities to learn about Him, His love for us, and the redemptive work Jesus did on our behalf. Man or woman, old or young, Jew or Gentile – we are loved, we are forgiven, and we have been saved.

God loves us. He blesses us abundantly. He sustains us in our faith and guides us through life.  He gives us what we need for body and spirit and is willing to tell us more than once in order that we might understand and receive it in our hearts. He is patient and loving in His teachings because He desires that we live our lives according to His good and perfect will. And if it takes years of instruction and thousands of reminders to open our hearts to Him, that’s exactly what He’ll do. May we never grow weary of the Word or become impatient with God when life becomes challenging.

Go to Him, listen, learn, repent, forgive, witness, serve – then repeat!

 

Devotion by Richard Schumacher

Senior Director of Operations