New mercies come every morning. His faithfulness beckons us to come, look, listen, pay attention. Look past your current struggles and the distractions of every day life to see the bigger picture. God gave me a new mercy the other day as I was working in the kitchen. He showed me that my vision of Him needs some clarification… obviously, right? Do we ever have a clear view of who God completely is? No…
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
Romans 11:33
As Christians, we are constantly growing and being sanctified, learning and re-learning, stumbling and mumbling our way through this foreign land. The lessons we learn one year may be re-learned again 5 years later, 20 years later, or 40 years later. It may be that we learn them over and over again year after year, but in new ways. God may give us a new perspective or help us to see a Scripture passage from a new angle. This happens constantly if we are regularly reading God’s Word. If we are not regularly reading God’s Word, there’s not much to expect in terms of spiritual growth. We become dried up branches and that is not a healthy place to be for many reasons! The Lord will surely prune His precious children’s lives to draw us back to Him.
My understanding of God is constantly growing as I read Scripture. Sometimes He teaches me about His holiness or love. Other times, He teaches me about His anger over sin and His total satisfaction in the atonement of His Son. Still other times, He teaches me about His tenderness and His shepherd’s heart for the lost lamb.
His mercy to me the other day was to show me His warm, tender love. After a challenging week caring for all my responsibilities at home and in relationships, my heart was tired and weary. My strength was utterly sapped in every way… physically, emotionally and spiritually. It was all I could do to push through another day and desperately cling to my Savior. In that moment at the kitchen sink, He called me to remember His tender love for me and dwell there.
His tender love. The love of the Good Shepherd for me.
It is a sweet kindness for God to show me that. It is a great mercy for Him to humble me and show me that I do daily need to come to Him to know Him more clearly. So I pray, Lord, give me new eyes daily to humbly submit to Your mercies. It is there that my knowledge of You is refined and made clearer. It is in the abiding where my heart is loosed from all earthly cares and my soul finds rest in You alone. When my soul is so fully satisfied in You, all temptations and worldly distractions fall away.
The peace of Christ reigns when we see with new eyes.