God Have Mercy

Aw ~ the mercies of God ~ new every morning ~ everlasting ~ tender. Have you ever cried out for those mercies? Maybe you have been keeping vigil by someone’s bedside as they battle a serious illness or disease. Or maybe you are sitting by the phone waiting to hear that a loved one is safe. Or just maybe you find yourself often in prayer for that loved one who has strayed from the fold ~ you don’t know where they are or what they are doing ~ but you fear the worst.

Situation after situation, in our lives, will bring great cause for us to cry out "God have mercy!" It’s almost like a helplessness ~ really. Not being in control ~ not knowing what the future holds ~ not being able to heal that serious illness or not knowing that all our children are safe at home or controlling whether a loved one will return to the fold intact ~ if at all.

In my mind, I’ve compared it to watching a chess game in progress. I cannot move any of the pieces ~ I simply watch as deliberate and even haphazard moves are made. I want to cry out "Don’t put that piece there ~ you will lose it for sure." "Watch out, you’re gonna lose." "Let me play for you ~ I have more experience ~ I can help you to be a winner." I feel like I know better than them ~ I want to intervene ~ make decisions that will minimize or completely alleviate their pain and discomfort on down the pike.

And then I have to remind myself of that beautiful promise of God’s mercies. How I can cry out when I feel helpless; how I can beg for His mercy when my mind has gone silly with "motherly" worry; how I can trust my Heavenly Father to oversee the chess game of my life. For it is He who is in control ~ and not myself.

I once heard a precious Christian woman give her testimony and if I were to forget everything else she said and only remember this one phrase then I will have remembered much. She said, "God doesn’t waste a hurt." Even in the times of life when our chess games may have gotten haphazard and may even appear as if the board and its pieces are going to tumble to the floor ~ God will use those hurts to glorify Him if we are willing. God will use those times to mold us and make us what we ought to be. We must stand firm ~ turn our backs on that which Anne of Green Gables called "the depths of despair" ~ and claim His love and mercies for they are new and fresh each morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23

[22] It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.