New Every Morning - By Teri Murphy
I was reading in Lamentations 3:19-26 and am once again humbled by how great our God is. These verses start out by saying "Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood ad the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, becasue His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord:. (KJV)
Pride is one of those things that is a constant battle in the life of man. Pride will cause us to lie, to cheat, to speak down to others, to try to be something that we are not, it will cause us to "cut off of noses to spite our face". Pride is not something that you master once and never have to deal with again. Every day that God chooses to wake us we have ample opportunity to walk in pride or humility. To be led by the Spirit of God or by our own flesh. Most of us don't even see how prideful we are. Worse yet, some of us don't even care - as long as we are feeling like we aren't the one most wounded.
In the above verses, the prophet Jeremiah is saying (my paraphrase here) "Man, I remember all the horrible things in my life and all the misery when I was without the Lord". And it is this recollection that makes him (us) humble. It is only in a humbled state that we can hope that the Lord is going to change us.
Surely it is only because of the Lord that my own sin has not caused my death. Surely it is only because of the Lord that I am still breathing and have been given another chance. The Bible says that God's mercy is new every morning. - and as if that isn't enough, that great is God's faithfulness. He is faithful to show mercy, He is faithful to be compassionate.
The other day I was reading James chapter 1 and I got such a revelation on verse 5 which says "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally; and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him". Now I never knew what upbraideth truly meant. It means that you can go to God and ask for widsom (or mercy, or forgiveness, or whatever it is you need to grow closer to him) and that God isn't going to say "FINALLY, I was wondering how long it was going to take to get through your thick skull, or I TOLD you that you would come begging" or any other belittlement we might have heard from others when we needed help. No, God is not like that. He is not going to smash us over the head when we disappoint Him, or yell at us or make us feel worse than we already do when we come crying to Him. He is not going to call us names or laugh at us or embarrass us or make us kiss His feet when we come to Him with a sincere repentant heart asking Him to give us wisdom so that we can be mature Christians and stop acting like spoiled little brats!
Even though there is none that can even come close in comparison to Him, He is humble and compassionate and He wants us to be like Him. The prophet Micah tells us in chapter 6 verse 8 "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God".
He has already shown us! He showed us through the example of His own life how we are to live, how we are to treat others and what He is truly like. He not only showed us in everyday circumstances, but through the most extreme circumstance of all, through the death of His only Son on the cross. He still did wht was right. He obeyed those that were in authority (to do justly) , in the midst of being beaten mercilessly, and while nails were being driven through His hands and feet and while He was hanging on a cross like a common criminal. Through a face drenced in blood from thorns being driven into it, through all his torture and suffering and humiliation, through all of that when one of the thieves hanging next to Him asked Jesus said "today, you will be with me in paradise". (to love mercy) and in spite of still having the power that created the entire world within HIm, He could have done anything He wanted too, but the words He spoke to His Father in the Garden of Gethsememe were, "Not my will, but Your's be done". (to walk humbly with your God)
We do not need the beginning of a new year to make a resolution. We don't need to wait for a new year to use as a point of reference to know that there are things in our lives that need to change. Each new day that God gives us is another opportunity to do what is required of us; to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. He has already showed us how to do it. He has already shown us that it is NOT impossible. We must quit making excuses for our behavior.
This world is pregnant with self righteousness, with rebellion, with harlotry and with sin. I don't want to be on this earth when this world gives birth. I hope to be like that thief on the cross that looked into those loved filled eyes and hear those words "today you will be with me in paradise".
May God bless you today.
