The faithful love of the LORD never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!” The LORD is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.
Lamentations 3: 22-25 (New Living Translation)
Here it is almost the end of January and I realize that I DID NOT keep my resolution to blog every week! In fact this is the first entry I am making in 2011! Where did this month go? I know that many of us have been making and breaking many resolutions in the past few weeks and I was reminded of the scripture that Jeremiah wrote after the fall of Jerusalem.
Our God is after all a God of second chances, of new mercies each morning and who faith in us never ceases, even though He knows us right down to our very core. I was reminded of this as I have plowed through the book of Genesis as I begin my second year of reading through the Bible in year! Hey – I kept a resolution the whole year for 2010. I CAN DO THIS!
I think, looking at our humanness, we are way too hard on ourselves sometimes and while indeed it was the core disobedience of the Israelites that led them to the mess they were in when Jeremiah penned the words above, God still was holding and providing for them.
Every night before I fall asleep, I review my day and pray through it, asking God to point out my failings and of course seek His forgiveness. This practice leads me to a place of peace, but if I hold on to whatever confession I make at bedtime in the next morning, I am denying God from bringing me His new mercies! Ever think about that?
So really, I need to accept God’s forgiveness and MOVE ON! (One of my seminary professors stated that once we leave something at the foot of the cross it is really quite tacky to go back and pick it up again.) So if I don’t drop the regrets of yesterday, I am not open to His new Mercy today.
A great book by Anne Jackson “Permission to Speak Freely”, has an essay about the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32). As Jackson and many other commentators note the willingness of the Father to go out and greet and welcome the wayward or runaway son and bring forth a celebration, I suddenly was drawn to the son, who recognized how he had wasted his inheritance and his time. The son was preparing to come home to be a servant, he knew that he had blown it, but was willing to in humility just come home to do the lowliest job. Many of us are familiar with the Father’s extravagance and accept that the son received all the Father offered.
My question to myself and to anyone reading this is; ARE YOU receiving the new mercies that Father is offering you each new morning? Or are you clinging to the failures of yesterday? Many who quote the Lamentations passage just show verses 22 – 23, which by itself has a powerful message. I am adding verses 24-25 to remind myself and I pray you are reminded as well, that we need not lose hope in our inheritance and it’s OK to depend on God and to keep searching and adjusting your plan as you go along!
So then, I am going to remind myself that I still have 48 weeks to try to jot down some thoughts in this literary form called a blog in the calendar year 2011. I pray that the two words that came to me in this new year – namely EDIT and HARNESS (specifically my thoughts!) will occur as I am faithful and disciplined to continue this project.
And so with letting go of the brokenness of yesterday – I RECEIVE GOD’S MERCY and start this again!
Happy NEW DAY!
What is GOD CALLING YOU TO START ANEW TODAY?
Go to it then!
Stop and rest, drop the regrets of yesterday, pick up the FRESH NEW MERCIES OF TODAY and go back to 'the hike o' life'
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