Remebering

P 2591 My thoughts about mercy and grace.

/ DVH

“Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.”” Luke 6:36 TPT. “Mercy is NOT getting what I deserve, and Grace is getting what I DON’T deserve…” Bill Johnson.

Personally, I’m not actually sure Christians have absorbed the fact that the undeserved mercy and/or compassion we have been given, has been given to us in over-abundant excess – so we have lots, and we can give it away! We need to be alert and become the people who can discern His mercy when it comes toward us…. instead of choosing to become debt collectors, who collect other people’s mistakes! A whole lot of people have actually been very good to us, when we were too dumb to know the way we were acting, was not Godly. Recognising you have been given undeserved mercy and compassion is the best way I know to abound in it … as well as overflow with it toward other people! 

Here’s a helpful hint – you and I have been given mercy because we NEED mercy!  And at the absolute bottom of that thought is the idea that you and I are not all that. Meanwhile, it does not look like we will end up being all that, any time soon either! 😂 Human beings can easily lack bigness of heart. But because we are following Jesus, and He allowed His big loving heart to be broken for our sakes, our only acceptable response to His bigness is to pass that mercy and grace we received ON to others who don’t deserve it either! We all need a whole of lot of mercy and compassion, all the time — particularly the overflowing kind. 

The problem with human beings is that we can think quite well of ourselves, and we can be ignorant of how incredibly costly the mercy we’ve freely received from others  – IS. Godly mercy is expensive to those amongst us who turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile … and patiently wait for you to find out you are not the nice person you think you are! I try to remember that the MERCY I have been given cost Jesus Christ His life. He has given us such amazing transforming benefits by releasing His grace and mercy upon us. But one of the biggest things I need to remember is that He actively encouraged me to pass what I GOT from Him, on to YOU. 

The best way to begin comprehend what mercy, compassion or grace really means, is to realise I don’t and will not ever deserve either one of them because of the sinful state He found me in. These graces are cultivated. God didn’t feel sorry for me – He forgave me! Therefore, I can’t brag about something I was given because the Giver is always the greater One. The truth is it doesn’t actually matter if you don’t deserve it either – you and I are in the same boat, and next time it will probably be my turn! We need to live this new life we were given remembering that we have nothing that was not given to us. (1 Corinthians 4:7)

Most people don’t understand how utterly rebellious we still are! Without daily recognition of God’s grace and His mercy that freely flowed out from the cross toward us … we can easily become a kind of penultimate narcissist with a complete self-interest that is totally pathological!  Sadly, there are people don’t even bother to hide that anymore. They wear their attitude with pride like a badge, and call it self-discovery!! To be merciful to difficult people in today’s world will take every bit of the mercy and grace Jesus has given us. We will have to go back to Calvary’s well over and over again. That’s what “leaning on Him” means. We are in a process, with His supervision, that will soften our hard hearts toward the world we live in, if we let it.

A hardened heart does not comprehend mercy, or grace. The more we allow the Lord to break our hearts with what breaks His heart, the softer our hearts will become. Human beings don’t want to live like that. So this means I will continually need to get these things from the Lord, to give to you! That takes humility. Very few of us know that we aren’t naturally humble. We’ve all learnt to make nice polite noises, and remain silent in the face of someone else’s bad attitude, and so we hope that will do. The wisdom to keep your mouth shut is not the same thing as deliberately loving the person who hurts you.

Here’s a thought that may save your life and sanity, as well as your often-broken heart  … people who lack these things, can’t give you what they haven’t got! They are childishly stuck in ‘me first’ and ‘my turn!’ These dear folk might understand these things in principle, but the reality is this, they are scared to face the revelation of who they actually are – inside. Christians are not nice. We are redeemed not nice!  When we face who we really are – in the light of His goodness and unconditional love – it stops being scary, and His grace and mercy get bigger.

Everything that we thought was good about ourselves DISSOLVES in the reality light of Christ’s own character and loving kindness toward us. We need to be progressively reshaped into His image one decision at a time. And learning to receive and give away grace and mercy empowers us to do it. 👋

P 2548 Fight for your HOPE.

/ DVH

Psalm 42:1-11. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  Have you ever thought to yourself? … “If I can just get to Jesus, I know I will be alright.” It seems this Psalmist guy had a similar thought … or … maybe he is just a realist? A lot of our time can be wasted on trying to work out stuff we can’t possibly fix – and/or things that are way outside our control! When all it takes is “help help” Lord! We cannot manage our new life without Him.

“These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.”

Remembering the good things of the past sets us up to have renewed hope for the future. This guy has enough sense to know that his soul, his feelings, his imagination and his circumstances are never good things to be allowed to lead us. He asks himself questions! We cannot afford to spend our time and focus lamenting about the things that come at us. We must remind ourselves God is still on His throne and He always wants to help us!  BTW, unless we are continually renewing our minds, our minds can go into terrible places too.

“My soul is downcast within me;  therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.  Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;  all Your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.“

This Psalmist has a great grasp on reality. He doesn’t deny what is going on, instead he uses his memory to remind himself of better times, wherever he goes. Without the Lord Jesus continually guiding us, our lives can be smashed against the rocks of this life and they can immediately seem purposeless.

In the Western world we’ve been led astray, because we’ve been living lives of comparative ease. We don’t face the terrible things daily other people in this world are facing, daily. It is too easy to think that having whatever we want;  a good life without hardship, is our right. And then we can get our crank on when this life becomes difficult. Easy lives raise shallow people, just like shallow soil raises plants with shallow roots. God wants to grow oak trees, not radishes. You can harvest radishes in a week, oak trees take a little longer! 

“I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God? Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.”

You know, if we absolutely have to complain, then let’s go and talk things over with the Lord. But remember, if all we ever do is complain then — He will eventually leave us to work things out for ourselves. Complaints need to turn back toward faith in Him and asking for His help. We must push past our feelings into the reality of His Presence. Our God is always with us, He wants to help us. He will even save us from our own stupid selves. Trouble is the best time to ask yourself questions. Why am I feeling so overwhelmed? Why isn’t my faith handling this Lord? 

The way through trials and tribulations is to continually push back against everything around us that wants to soothe us off to sleep, into oblivion. This world will be happy to tell us how unfair our life is. We have to learn to resist whatever is going on around us, and go back to lifting our eyes and hearts, up to the Lord. That’s where our help always comes from – He is the centre of focus – not the things that pass away. Plus our feelings, will lie to us!  Let’s press on into hope and resist our circumstances, because they can change in a heartbeat. And then we ask ourselves, ‘Who is in charge of my life, my responses, my well-being … my circumstances, or God?’ I will always have a choice to make. I can choose to give in to how I feel etc. or remember where my hope comes from.

Just because things don’t get better that does not mean God has deserted you – He has a plan. No matter how dark it seems – He has a plan to ‘give us a hope and a future.” Hold on! Don’t let your feelings push your faith aside. The man who wrote this Psalm knew he was able to get through things, because he knew that in God, he was bigger inside than outside. Whenever we let go of our hope we are letting go of OUR anchor! Hebrews 6:19, 20.”We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, …”

If you end up bobbing about in rough seas wondering why you are being pushed around by huge waves, currents and undercurrents of this life – it is time to remind yourself that you’ve forgotten to let down the anchor. Grab hold of Jesus and tell Him, “I will not let You go!.” Because of what Christ did, we can go into the Holy of holies and seize our hope. Hope is our forever anchor, and our Hope is always in the Lord and what He did for us, not in our circumstances. Jesus is our everlasting hope that God has a purpose in the midst of the chaos. 🙌