Open Your Eyes to Every Morning Mercies

I believed and rested in the mercy of God before Kim’s death. Make no mistake—before a holy God, I stand in need of mercy like every other person. Mercy, by definition, is not receiving what you deserve. Mercy is punishment withheld, a gift from a just God.

“What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” Romans 9:14-15

Let’s be candid. You and I deserve to absorb the consequences of our sin. According to the Bible, we deserve eternal separation from God. Sin entered our world and infected every human. It takes a minimal amount of self-awareness to acknowledge this obvious reality.

I laugh as I write this because I am watching two of my children raise their children. Five beautiful grandchildren. As I write, they are all five years of age and under. Let’s just say, I don’t have to convince two of my children of original sin or the fall of man. I don’t have to even make the case. My adorable grandsons and granddaughter were born into sin.

Adorable. Precious. But infected by sin. In need of mercy. Praise God because we know mercy triumphs over judgment (James‬ ‭2:13). That truth is liberating.

“Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!” Reginald Heber, “Holy, Holy, Holy”

The need for mercy to shield a sinner from the eternal judgment and separation he deserves is an important truth to understand and embrace. God’s mercy rescues us from receiving what we deserve.

“There is no sin or misery but God has a mercy for it. He has a multitude of mercies of every kind.” Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ

However, there’s another aspect to mercy. In a fallen world, we face many difficulties. Some days are worse than others. There’s persecution. There’s mistreatment. There’s loss. There are various kinds of difficulty. This is a hard world to face at times. Brokenness can cause a mess. And so, God promises to show up every morning with new mercies. Reprieve. Release. Renewal. Reset. New every morning. Never come to an end.

“Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Leviticus 3:19-23

Waves of mercy show up on the shore of real need every single morning. No exception. Mercy is like manna. You don’t need yesterday’s mercy tomorrow. Because of his enduring love, he supplies new mercy for a new day. Like clockwork. Put it at the top of your every-single-day-of-every-single-month-of-every-single-year calendar.

“…in a world where everything is in some state of decay, God’s mercies never grow old. …Formfitted for the challenges, disappointments, sufferings, temptations, and struggles with sin within and without are the mercies of our Lord.” Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

Here’s my testimony: His steadfast love does not cease. Ever. His mercies do not end and really are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness to me. Great is his faithfulness to you, too.

New mercies really are new every morning. So, open your eyes.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…” Ephesians 2:4-5

“The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head.” William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”