New Mercy, New Year!

How fortunate we are to just wake up this morning as we normally do and begin an entire New Year!  It required nothing of us but the turning of a page on the calendar or maybe adjusting the year on our watches or phones, though most are automatic.

God's Word tells us that His mercy is new every morning and that His mercy endures forever.  It requires nothing of us as well for God is faithful when we are not.  Just as the time He created marches on unhindered by our decisions and plans, so His mercy does, also. 

We set our life by time.  We plan schedules.  We rise and lie down according to time.  We go to school and work.  We meet and eat on some type of plan according to time.  It is a created thing to allow us to organize our lives and to recognize our limits.

Still somehow we just can't make it!  Some people, myself included, tend to be late because we stretch the limit of the minute.  However, those of us who are very punctual will occasionally be late, maybe due to illness or traffic.  The other extreme are people completely incapacitated trying to live a schedule to the point that it debilitates them.  All of these seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks , months and years and we cannot get it right!  We couldn't have more structure and yet, we cannot naturally follow the order God created.  Why?  We weren't made to do it alone.

Some of you may think that is unfair or cruel.  Some may think that God sets us up to fail.  Do training wheels on a bike set a child up to fail?  No indeed!  They are for safety for an unstable child on a moving object for stabilization and for building confidence.  But nothing, NOTHING takes the place of Mom or Dad standing behind the child shouting instructions or running along beside this child cheering them on.  Remember?  I do!  Would you say that was cruel?

This world is a moving target.  As long as we live there will always be something new to encounter, something we aren't ready for.  Age does not guarantee maturity in all areas of life.  How do you maturely handle the loss of a parent or child?  How does age teach you to deal with the increasing hostility of the world?  It does not.  But an encounter with the mercy that is new every morning and that endures forever-THAT teaches, matures, stabilizes, and gives confidence.

Grace is God giving you what you don't deserve.  Mercy is God not giving you what you deserve.  We need both!  They go hand in hand.  But, I remember mercy.  Oh, how God teaches me through mercy!   
When I have messed up big, whether it was a BAD decision or a mistake (and there are very few real mistakes), I remember mercy. 

Mercy matures me in a way nothing else can and makes me wiser.  Having not received a just punishment makes me appreciate forgiveness.  To receive mercy makes you appreciate grace.  You may think in a worldly manner that we "get away" with certain things.  NOT SO!  "...be sure your sin will find you out." Numbers 22:33.  If God was not all-knowing or Omniscient, He would not be God at all.  Something about God overlooking a blatant wrong makes me mature, wise and even strong.

Mercy teaches me how to handle loss.  God gives and takes away.  He knows the length of all the lives He created.  He Alone begins and ends as the Author and Finisher of our faith.  How can I call the One who gave me mercy, who held back punishment from me, unfair and unjust because a life ends?  Though a life may end in tragedy-did not His own Son die a violent death at the hand of murderers and those who falsely accused Him and blasphemed God?  He could've stopped that crucifixion, too.  He did not.  There was purpose in the death.  We are all born to die one day.  Jesus was our example in even that violent death.  Yet He provided for His family by giving His mother to John.  He gave mercy to a thief being put to death with Him.  He quoted scripture and fulfilled scripture from the very instrument of His death, the Cross.  His violent death WAS my mercy!

Mercy teaches me to deal with hostility.  By being the recipient of mercy and then, grace, I have learned to be more lenient with those who are blind to their toxic behavior and unkind by choice.  This area is still a work in progress for me.  Had I never received mercy, I wouldn't understand forgiveness and I would've had no example.  I am reminded daily of what Jesus did for me.  If He could die to forgive my sins, I can overlook the sin of others.  Sometimes it is very hard and I don't get it right the first time.  But, I try.

Solomon learned about mercy and grace and left us a wonderful example in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under Heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal; time to break down, And a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
A time to tear, And a time to sow; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace."

Make the most of your time and remember, God's mercy is new every morning!

Please continue to pray for Mercy Abounds this New Year!  May God bless you and to God be the glory!
Jamie