Accepting Mercy

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." -Lamentations 3:22-23

In this text, Israel as a nation has failed God by making decisions that took them away from the will of God. The result of their sin is exile. Yes, they have been stripped of their land and enslaved, but they are still alive to repent. Like Israel, we know we've done some things wrong. We know we have fallen short. We also know that based on who God is (HOLY) we should be consumed. That word means we should be completely wiped out and annihilated, BUT we are still here. We are still standing. Yes, we've had to go through some hard things and some of those hard things were a direct result of poor decision making that prioritized our temporary satisfaction while disregarding the long-term ramifications of our decisions. We chose pleasure for a moment and must accept that our decisions come with consequences.

However, we also have to accept that God's mercy ensures the magnitude of our consequences. They will never be as bad as we deserve them to be. Our consequences have a job to do - they have to work together for our good. They have to bring out the best in us and then they have to leave us alone. God has chosen to extend mercy to us by not giving us what we deserve, but giving us another chance. Why? because His compassion never fails. His love for us causes Him to accept us in our fallen state and to create a method for our deliverance that would ensures our forward progression. Now all we have to do is Accept God's mercy and keep moving forward.