And so it begins…we are going to exercise more, eat better, lose weight, save more money, write a book, spend more time with God…on and on the list goes. What is it about January 1st that causes us to make new resolutions for our lives? What is it that stirs up these passions within us, where we are compelled to take the weak areas of our lives and make them better? Simple, January 1st represents a new beginning for us; a fresh start; a clean slate. With it, we have hope for a better tomorrow, one in which we will be more disciplined, more grateful, more…better. And yet according to Lamentations 3:22-23, we have this every morning with the Lord. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Jeremiah wrote these verses after Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians because of Israel’s constant rebellion and blatant sin towards God. Yet even when they spit in God’s face and told Him, “We do not want You God. We do not need You God.”, the Lord in His incredible mercy and grace still had favor on them and did not wipe them off of the map, which, He could have done and been well within His rights to do so. It was only because of His abundant mercies and His unfailing compassion that they were not consumed, for God’s faithfulness is great. Well, if you have given your life to Jesus Christ, I have great news for you…the same exact truth applies to you as well. Imagine if we lived every morning with God like it was January 1st. A new beginning, a fresh start, a clean slate. Gone would be the guilt and condemnation from yesterday’s sins and transgressions and failures, and instead we would have hope and joy for a better today, not because of something we can do or achieve, but because of God’s great faithfulness. Because of God’s great mercy and His unfailing compassion towards us. This is ultimately where we find our hope, our strength, and our joy to press on and walk worthy of the calling; to walk worthy of the great gift of salvation that we have been given. Believer, it is very important to remember that we confess our sin, not because they need to be removed from us, but because we are already forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven. Past tense, yet continually ongoing as if we have never sinned. And if we were to take this to the ultimate reality of God’s love and forgiveness, we would see that it’s not just every morning that we have new mercies, but it is every minute of every day, for the rest of our lives, that we are given new mercies. When Jesus died on the cross, every single sin that we would ever commit was in full view, and yet He still said “It is finished” when He breathed His last breathe. The Greek word there is Tetelesti. It means “paid in full”. If you were in Greece today, and you bought something at the grocery store, at the bottom of your receipt where it has the remaining balance of $0.00, you will see this word, Tetelesti. There is nothing left to do…all business has been concluded. That is what the cross means for the believer. It is finished and we are forgiven. So let every moment be your January 1st because there are new mercies for this day. Read more devotions at ouredl
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 15:48:00 +0000
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