“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
There are so many passages about mercy in the Bible, but for some reason this passage really hit me. What does it mean that His "mercies are new every morning"? I began singing this verse and I had the most interesting picture some to my mind I never imagined before.
I imagined I was in the wilderness, picture the children of Israel back int he wilderness for those forty years. And every morning, I would come out of my tent and there was the manna on the ground, just waiting for me. It was provision, but it was also something that was there for me, in that moment, for that day. Imagine, each day, He provides for you what you need, just for that day. Follow me for a second- picture that each day He is providing something for you, custom for what you need that day.
One thing I considered was this idea, "does God already have what I need and He is just waiting to see what I need, then He grabs it out of His storehouse and hands it to me?" Or does He custom create on the fly for me something thats never been made, that doesn't exist, and hand it to me? I want to look at that verse again in the Message version.
“God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He’s all I’ve got left.”
Wow. "They're created new every morning." They are not "new" because they are "new" to my experience of them, they are "new" because they were just created. Have you ever experienced that? Have you every felt like God did something, maybe meaningless to someone else, but to you, it was such a little, specific thing that only you would feel the pleasure of the Lord in it? It was like He just intervened and "created" that for you? I have actually had that happen to me several times.
When you look up the Hebrew and Greek definitions for the word "mercy", often a synonym is "compassionate". Compassion means that the Lord is looking at you, tending to your heart, and caring about your needs. It is a movement of His heart toward you. Do you see that? Isn't that amazing? He is looking at you, even now, with a heart of compassion, caring for your needs, and in that response, creating for you what you need everyday. What is He creating? Opportunities, shifting circumstances toward your favor, aligning things that need to be in place, as I would imagine, anything that you would need to walk in His ways to grow closer to Him. The force of mercy has everything to do with His compassionate reach for you.
Maybe this is something that you needed to hear today. Because His mercies are new every morning, that means that if you missed it yesterday, you can turn toward Him and see His compassion working toward you today.
The Lord shows you mercy, because He is merciful. It is His character, His nature. In fact, He also promises that if you show others mercy, mercy will be extended toward you. (Matthew 5:7) The force of mercy is that the more you look at Him, recognize His compassion toward you, receive it, in turn you'll become merciful toward others, and you'll deepen your compassion, ultimately, becoming more like Jesus.
REFLECTIONS
Is the force of mercy operating in your life?
Can you think of a time you felt like God just ordered a circumstance in your favor, something that was a unique creation, just for you?
How do you feel about your compassion level towards others? Are you merciful? Have you experienced being able to be more compassionate toward others when you have felt the compassion of the Lord toward you?
Take sometime this week to daily consider the mercy that you have been shown and see how acknowledging God's compassion toward you affects your view and compassion towards others. Ask God to ignite the force of mercy in your life today!