MY Mercies are New Every Morning
I said “Lord, have mercy!” several times in my blog yesterday. I wish that those words were my words. I mean MY mercies. I read this scripture: “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies are new every morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23) I know those words are true. I know His faithful love, His fresh mercy each morning. But, then there’s ME! What about my love, my faithfulness, my mercy to others? I want MY faithful love, MY faithfulness, and MY mercies for others to never end.
I’ll admit it. My love, faithfulness, and mercies falter. Sometimes I’ll get bugged because there are no cashiers in all those cashier lines and I’m standing in a long line at the only one line that is open. Or the fast-food restaurant leaves out some of my order. Or the driver cuts in between me and another car and I almost hit him. And, then this week, the dentist whose chair-side manner was more like a car salesman (no offense to car salesmen) than a caring advocate. Honestly, I need MY mercies for me, who am oftentimes my biggest challenge. Oh, that MY mercies were new every morning!
I sincerely desire to be like Jesus. He set the example for us in the love, faithfulness, and mercy departments. Clearly, that’s why God set Him as our role model. He modeled how to do it. Daily, God invites us to come and sit with Him and His Word (His “how to” manual) to learn about His Son’s countless ways of never-ending love, faithfulness, and mercies.
Sometimes we’re overridden with guilt about our lack of performance. We turn down His invitation to meet Him at the watering (Living Water) well. Maybe you’re familiar with some of these thoughts: “It’s been so long since I’ve sat down with my Bible. I can’t remember the last time I prayed for more than a few hurried minutes. Who am I to ask God to speak to me?”
But how wrong to think those thoughts. God isn’t keeping a spiritual scorecard to see when we deserve the right to sit in His presence and feast on His Word. His invitation has nothing to do with our performance and everything to do with His mercies and desire to fill us with His wisdom and encouragement.
My heart is overwhelmed by the example that God gives to us. His mercies are unending. And He extends a fresh, grace-filled invitation for us to draw close to Him each morning. His eyes are brimming with hope that we’ll accept His invitation afresh today. He knows the more we lean in closer to Him, the more we’ll become like Him. That’s my prayer today.
Make me more like You, Jesus. Give me a heart that’s filled with love AND mercy and make me more like You! A merciful heart like yours every morning. Lord, have MERCY! And, Jesus’ reply to my prayer is: “Blessed are the merciful (even to yourself, Donna), for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)