Weakness & Mercy

No one likes Monday... I don’t really either, and yet it is wonderful!

I LOVE anything that gives me a fresh opportunity. A new school year, a new house, a new daytimer with nothing written in it yet. It represents to me freshness and opportunities. I tend to be a sweeping changes type person. When I get…. I will…. Each time I looked ahead to my leave from overseas, I would imagine a wonderful time in which I would get up every morning early, do devotions and then run… come home to a healthy breakfast and a new outlook. Inevitably, my craving for greasy pizza would take over and I was done! Then again, toward the end of my vacation, the same thing… I will change my life by changing my circumstances etc.

Lamentations 3:21
This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope.
22It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. -KJV

The good news is that a fresh week or day or year or month DOES hold unlimited opportunities. Yes, there are realities of past experiences, there are circumstances that we cannot just turn the calendar and have them disappear. And yet, we serve a God whose mercy is NEW EVERY MORNING. That means… each day God has put aside all that went before it. The mistakes and sins are as if it never happened in the eyes of God. Each day I have the opportunity to make a completely Fresh Start. It is us who tie ourselves to our past.

PSALM 103: 9-14
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbour his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

HE REMEBERS that we are dust. How freeing is that? We have these expectations of ourselves to meet the expectations of those around us. Yes, the calling is HIGH. And yet, the one who called us is well aware of our weakness.

The Cross was the answer for our weakness. God knew that in our “dustiness” that we would never be able to live up to the standard.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So we turn to God, not in our strength, but in our weakness. It is then, that God says “OK… my dusty child… lets work on this. In MY strength. You don’t have to do it alone. “

Our world has a MASSIVE aversion to weakness. We have become a society obsessed with not showing weakness. We are all walking around hoping to hide our weaknesses from one another, and in doing so, when we see weaknesses in each other, our reactions are so strong because if I can see your weakness, perhaps you can see mine. So, like wounded animals, we attack each other in our weakest moments.; gossip, judgment and almost every reality TV show is about exposing one another’s weakness.

I think that God loves to expose our weaknesses. Not to leave us vulnerable to attack, but in order to show us where He is standing and fighting on our behalf.

Recently I travelled with some amazing friends. Two weeks in exotic, challenging situations. Inevitably, weaknesses were exposed. One of our friends- who is about as tough as they come- inadvertently revealed a ‘concern for the safety’ of suspension bridges. His words spoke of his “concern for the safety of….” but his face, demeanour and reluctance told us another story. He was fearful. It was a chink in his armour that was so incongruent with the rest of him, that it was almost comical. As his friends we had a choice to make. With some good-natured ribbing we ventured across leaving him on the other side to face his’ concern’. We didn’t make a big deal about it. We simply carried on our way, knowing that he would get across the bridge safely – he just needed some space. Throughout the trip we were faced with more than a few opportunities to see each other’s weaknesses. And I came to a discovery…

IT IS AN HONOUR TO COVER ONE ANOTHER’S WEAKNESS!

When you love someone as much as we love each other, and are seeking the best for one another, it is not a problem to cover each other. From motion sickness, to financial weakness, to language challenges in a foreign nation, we each had weaknesses that surfaced and in response the group brought its unique gifting to each situation, covered the weakness, and all were better for it. How much more… God?

Matthew 12:12How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!

Luke 11:13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 12:24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Luke 12:28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

Romans 5:9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

Romans 5:10For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Romans 5:15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

Romans 5:17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

I want to entrust God with my weaknesses. I want to be someone who takes God at His word, that His mercies are new every morning. I want to move through my day each day knowing that God has removed my transgressions from me. I want to live in the shadow of the cross moment by moment, by moment.

So next time you turn the page in your daytimer and see the freshness, and remeber that He remembers we are DUST! And embrace Monday!