Oh how grateful I am for His great mercy. This verse is shared by Nehemiah in one of his many reflective statements in response to the seemingly never-ending cycle of the human propensity when forgiven, shown grace, given mercy, restored and blessed to return to their old ways. Oh isn’t this the pattern we fall into. This is the story of human nature. Blessed, then distracted, then off course, then rebellious, avoidant, in denial, arrogant, defensive, making excuses, faking it, miserable, reflective, needy, in pain, isolated, conscientious, penitent, calling out to God, forgiven, shown mercy, loved, restored, grateful, blessed… and then it begins again. In the previous verse it says after His people were restored once again “as soon as they were at rest, they did what was evil in His sight.” You know of course at any point of our cyclical descent we can take that bridge of His great mercy and grace back to Him. But no, once we get fixed on heading to the bottom, we seem to be destined to find it again. He could in all righteousness let us crash and burn or self destruct, but His great mercy takes over and He does not turn His back or abandon us, even though we deserve it. Instead He is again gracious and forgiving. He spares us over and over again. All because He did not spare His perfect Son. He let Him take our consequences, thereby making grace possible. You would think we could learn easier and faster, and we can. But, too often we do not. We miss opportunities to turn it around. We take days, weeks, months and years instead of moments, minutes and hours. We suffer and spread our suffering around like a sickness. Such a shame that we take so long with our shame. Kinda selfish how long we play it out in our games of denial, avoidance, blame-letting, pride, control and self-indulgence. But God remains the same, ever ready to transform our hearts and give us every possibility to surrender to Him as soon as our prideful will is open to relent and repent. Indeed His mercy is great; He is a gracious and merciful God. For my part dear Lord, I am so sorry for how I compound my problems, spread my trouble and wait too long to seek you. My heart is not always as humble as it is now. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me.
Join me in sincere contrition,Pastor Fred
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