Based off my last year; I definitely wouldn't mind a double helping of new mercies everlasting. The root word of the book Lamentations is Lament; which means to regret deeply or mourn. I find this kind of ironic because even though in this book the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and all of its sinful ways served as the backdrop for this book of writings there is still hope inscribed. In this chapter and passage Hope is given. When things pretty bad on my end this scripture gives me comfort. Mostly because no matter how much I mess up; God's love never ceases and his mercies towards me are everlasting and fresh every single day. I mean that's great news. Not in the sense that I can act like a fool and be forgiven but the fact that in spite of my foolishness his love and mercy is not conditional. A lot of people can't wait till New years because they themselves feel like they got a new lease on life and that they can truly leave their past in the past. But here in the text we don't have to wait to next year. God's faithfulness to forgive, love and provide does not require us to move at a specific time beyond right now. Right now I can enjoy his mercy upon my life.
Now please understand this scripture. It is not saying that tomorrows mercy is in some way superior to the mercy we receive right now. What the text is saying is that as we approach a new day we experience a fresh awareness to God's mercy. When we are asleep we don't really know what mercy the Lord has put on us, but we as believers know its there. But when tomorrow comes we get to experience a fresh cognitive experience with the Lord and his love and mercy. The same love and mercy that protected us through the night is the same love and mercy that will greet us upon a new morning. When we wake up in the morning, it's not a new sun that has been created; has it? No. It is the same sun that is completing a full rotation. But when it greets us in the new day, it is like seeing a new sun. Same sun that greets us in the morning; same mercy that greets us in the new day. But because we are awake and physically aware of the Lord's presence; we can appreciate a fresh helping of mercy.
So think of this scripture this way. Every day, symbolically, is a New Year. And if New Years symbolizes new beginnings and a fresh start. Then its safe to say that every day we are allowed to awake we get an opportunity at a new start. The fact that you awake is the proof of a new mercy upon your life and a new chance to do better. And i don't mean do better for the sake of doing better but I am saying do better in how we are with this gift of life the lord has given us. If all the Lord's blessings; and all the Lord's mercies; and all of the Lord's love is just for us then why give them so freely to us? Because it's not just for our enjoyment but also for his glory. If the Lord grants you another year to live and your thankful that you made it through then why is it we can't be that way every single day we awake. Technically a new day can mean the start of a new year for you. Doesn't have to wait until you get through the year to start better, do better, be better. But if God is not getting the praise then whats to stop him from handing out this everlasting love and fresh handfuls of mercy? We act like we are entitled because we are man and we have done great things. But there are many things we have no control over; the weather, waking up the next day, what happens in death. These are but a few. So knowing that we as the "great accomplishing" man don't have control over everything, don't you think we should start being a little more grateful for these gifts the Lord does give us?
I don't know maybe you aint really trying to hear all this and I get that; because at one point I wasn't trying to either. But now as the Holy Spirit reveals himself to me in just every day life I am just way more grateful and humbled at the awesomeness that is God. It's not to win cool points with God or show how "spiritual" I am. Just simple thankfulness and gratitude for his blessings of a planet and home to live on and in. The fact I live on a planet that I can breathe and doesn't require special equipment in order to do so. We control none of that yet we take it for granted that we have it. Let's not take for granted God's faithfulness and love towards his children; no matter how juvenile or delinquent we can be. - be blessed and a blessing
1 comment:
Its very easy to sit here and overlook the many mercies, and abundance of grace God gives us. The breath I just took belongs to God! But I believe we control less than we think. God knows all, knows where we are gonna fall, knows when we will come to Him, and what we are gonna say. He knows our successes before we do! Yet, like you said, He loves us unconditionally! Knows we aren't always holy as He has commanded us to be, yet doesn't stop Him from waking us up in NEW mercies, to give us another chance to get it right. Thank God for being God!!!!
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