Daily Devotion

April 24, 2006

Psa 119:132  Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

Paul reminds us that we “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).  The soul convicted of sin before its God is like that of the child whom the parents found in disobedience.  The child will need training and correction, but as he grows into a teenager he will be personally responsible for his actions, he will then also need mercy to preserve even his life from the penalty of disobedience, which is death (Deut 21:18).  The “victim mentality” of this age allows us the indulgence of blaming our disobediences on everything and everyone, dead or alive; but in the sight of God, we are solely responsible for our faults.

There are so many souls today convicted of disobedience who cannot bear even a look from their Heavenly father.  They are like the teenager who in his heart knows he has disappointed his parents, so in his pride, instead of trying to change and make amends, he leaves home and spends the rest of his life running. First he runs from home, then from responsibility and in the end he runs from the law.  All he had to do from the beginning is look back in his parent’s eyes, who should indulge him with the same mercy they themselves benefit from at the hand of their Heavenly Father.  

Will you stop running?  Will you stop pretending? Will you stop faking righteousness with your make-up of hypocrisy?  Will you turn around, and ask Him to look upon your wretched sinful face with mercy?  Oh I know, His mercy means “honey”, His mercy means “bitter”.  His mercy means “plenty”, though sometimes looks  “poorer”.  His mercy means “blue skies” in the eye of the storm; His mercy means “comfort”, in my soul so forlorn.  His mercy may deliver from pain; His mercy may sustain the pain. His mercy may free from the cross, His mercy may also bring the cross. But whatever His mercy means, whatever the Father places in its hands, may I look at it as the gift that he chose to help me make amends.

Let us today realize the mercy God pours into our lives, and stop whining at our blessings by using this truer perspective and standard:  
“Whatever the Lord allows in our lives is “mercy” compared to what we really deserve.”

Lam 3:22-23  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.

Patrick Lumbroso
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