Too Little Too Late (Friday Devotional)

No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

- Proverbs 28:13

When customers arrived at the Shipley’s Donuts shop in Houston in the middle of the day, they probably expected to have the place to themselves. But that hope was shattered when three men came barging through the front door—one of them waving a gun. Two of the men hopped over the counter to demand money from the cash register, while the other grabbed phones and wallets from the customers. As this third man waited for his partners to collect the cash, security camera footage shows him speaking calmly with the customers, possibly telling them it would all be over soon.

After a minute or two, the other thieves jumped back over the counter with their haul, making their way toward the door, and the third robber did something strange. Grabbing a couple of fresh donuts from behind the counter, he gently handed them to the petrified customers, then left hastily with his partners. He’d stolen their cash, their credit cards, and their cell phones—but at the last minute, he’d tried to make up for it with a couple of free donuts.

In a sense, we often treat God the same way that armed robber treated those customers—we try to patch up our sins with slight gestures of contrition, hoping that our small acts of penance will make up for larger failings. We lie to our spouse and then guiltily put a little extra in the offering plate at church. We lash out at a stranger online and then try to make up for it with some Bible reading that night. We wallow in hypocrisy and pride on Saturday and then show up Sunday morning to atone for our sins with worship.

Like the customers in that donut shop, God is not impressed with the crumbs we throw His way—He is not interested in our guilt, but our repentance. Repentance is more than just remorse for our sin, it means turning away from sin and toward Him. It’s one thing to recognize your failings, but it takes far more courage and faith to reverse course.

The gospel teaches us that in Christ, redemption begins with repentance, with the turning of your face from sin toward the cross. So when you fall short of the image of God, don’t settle for trifling acts of contrition; don’t try to barter your way toward forgiveness. Instead, turn from your failures to Christ’s victory. It is not your gifts of guilt that can save you—only God’s gift of grace.