{"id":26488,"date":"2019-09-24T03:30:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T10:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=26488"},"modified":"2019-09-20T12:03:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T19:03:11","slug":"september-24-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2019\/09\/24\/september-24-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"September 24, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThrough the LORD\u2019s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Lamentations 3:22-23<\/p>\n

Musing on Mercy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here I sit this morning with fresh mercy. It\u2019s my only thought\u2014the cry of a thankful, repentant heart. If not for new mercy as dawn\u2019s gray creeps into bright blue, I would be awash in self-loathing and exasperation at yesterday\u2019s thoughts that invaded my mind. I believed I was OVER all that, yet the same old attack came.<\/p>\n

I felt the battle as surely as if I\u2019d led the charge into enemy territory myself. But as I allowed myself to get closer to the harmful whispered suggestions, I realized I was unarmed, unshielded, and unprepared for the onslaught. I was lazy\u2014sleeping, in fact\u2014and when I awoke, and I sensed it coming, I should have gotten up and moved on. But I allowed the attack. I didn\u2019t fill my mind with right thoughts of how I am a new creature in Christ, saved from my sins, never to return to that pig slop.<\/p>\n

I spent the rest of the day in confession as I went about my normal activities. I asked forgiveness. I knew what I had done. I am overly familiar with the time and place that the enemy attacks me: my defenses are down when I am tired and feeling the right to be lazy that comes after stress and busyness. But there was still a heaviness, though I had confessed and had most certainly been forgiven.<\/p>\n

Ah, blessed morning with His new mercies, His compassions, His faithfulness! Yesterday when I confessed my sins before Him, He surely forgave me, but I did not forgive myself, did not accept His cleansing because I did not deserve it. Isn\u2019t that the truth we live in, though? We don\u2019t deserve forgiveness. Nor cleansing. Nor salvation. Nor mercy.<\/p>\n

We deserve nothing, yet are given everything. He knows we\u2019re dust. Flesh. He knows we need His help. He gave us the Holy Spirit right inside us to be that Helper. He gave His new mercies and compassions for moments like these.<\/p>\n

Today is a fresh day. I start it off as a cleansed sinner. I recount His faithfulness in this writing, declaring His tenderness toward me, His joy in forgiving me. He is the reason I am not consumed every single day by my own filth, for He has shown me mercy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFather, words don\u2019t do justice to Your tenderness. We can only express gratitude for the many ways You love us, the ways You save us from ourselves, and save us for Yourself. We lift Your Name on high with full hearts. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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