264. Mercy new every day
Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
The mercies and compassions of God are new every morning. In other words, the compassions never fail. God’s mercy and compassion have been for us in the past, they will be present to us in the present every single day, and they will always be there for us in the future. We can always count on the Lord to be merciful and compassionate whenever and wherever we need Him. We do not need to rely only on past experiences of mercy to sustain us, but the mercies of God are fresh for each new day, always available for every present problem, and applicable to any new situation we encounter. Mercy will never be lacking or insufficient.
The mercies of God are evident for all people in the cross of Christ. There the mercies of God are plain for all to see. The mercies of God have been clearly revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But that is in the past; that’s history, we might say. But No! That great one time event is renewed and refreshed for us today every time we “remember” it. Remembering activates the power and effect of the event and brings it into the present moment, and the mercy we see in the Cross applies to the present need. We need to hear again the Gospel and trust the Holy Spirit to make it effective for the issues of this day. So we “remember” our Baptism; we partake of Holy Communion “in remembrance of Me;” we are reminded of the concrete and real mercies of God when hear the abstract truth of the Gospel. Knowing that the mercies are new every morning makes practical use of the eternal truth of the love of God. The Spirit knows how to use the Word of God in our lives to make the mercies practically effective for today’s needs. The Gospel has a present power. The Cross may be a past historical event, but it is also a present reality and powerful truth. Indeed, His mercies and compassions are new every morning. The story of Jesus dying and rising for us is not dry and dusty history; it is refreshing mercy applied specifically to the needs of he moment. In this way they are new.
The reason the mercies of God are new and useful daily is because the faithfulness of the Lord is really great. He will do what He says. He can’t forget about us. He made promises and He will keep them. We turn to God for mercy every morning, for we are in desperate need of His solutions and answers every single day. To ignore God and His mercy for one day is more death dealing than we realize. To remember God every day is more life giving than we will ever know.