New Mercies
The love of the Lord is never exhausted,
nor do his deeds of mercy ever come to an end.
They are renewed every morning;
his faithfulness never ceases. – Lamentations: 3: 22-23
Today’s verse not only encourages me but challenges me. It is a message of relief and peace to know that no matter what I did yesterday, the ways I fell short or the sins that I committed, I am blessed to be able to start today with a clean slate and renewed possibilities. It reminds me that God still loves me in spite of my failures and that He never gives up on me. His mercies, forgiveness and grace are new every morning. What a tremendous blessing!
The challenging part is that I often do not provide the same mercy to others. I find myself holding on to offences, hurts, anger and resentment and carry them over to the next day and the next day and the next day, allowing them to rob me of the peace, love and joy that are possible with daily forgiveness and grace.
How can I live in the joy and peace of the Lord when I’m walking around filled with yesterday’s garbage? The word tells us that we cannot serve two masters so I have to choose which one I will serve; will I continue rubbishing through the junk of yesterday or will I release it though forgiveness and grace and live in renewed clutter free new day? The deeper questions is, “Am I going to offer to others the same grace, love and mercy that the Lord offers to me on a daily basis?”
The Lord’s prayer guides us to ask Him to forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. The forgiveness for our sins is contingent on us forgiving others. The Message explains it as follows; “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.” – Matthew 6:14 MSG
With that truth in mind I realize that the largest part of the garbage I’ve been carrying from day to to day is my own sin of unforgiveness. Imagine the freedom that can be experienced when we first forgive others and then receive the forgiveness of God who does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our offenses, but has removed our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. So great is His mercy toward us and so great should be our mercy towards others.
Father, please forgive me for my unforgiveness. I pray that I will begin today to offer the daily mercy and grace to others that You offer to me. Thank you for the guidance of Your Word and I pray I will obediently follow Your leading. In Jesus’ name, amen.