A Grateful Heart

God's Endless Mercy

This beautiful Sunday morning, I am grateful for God's mercy.

I think about how I fail God over and over again. I think about how I am deliberately disobedient to His calling. I think about how I treat the people I say I love as less than I should. I think about the endless mistakes I make every day. I think about my misplaced anger...my prejudices...and the fears that keep me bound.

And still, Christ loves me!

He loves me through all of may anger, resentment, bitterness and fear. He loves me even when He has asked me to do something and I don't do it or do it my way instead of His. He loves me although I consistently fall short of His ideal aspirations for me.

Christ loves me when the world rejects me and I retreat into my own little bubble of self pity. He loves me when the words I say crush the spirit of someone I'm supposed to love unconditionally. Christ simply loves me.

And just when I think I have blown it with God for the final time, Christ's mercy toward me spares my life and gives me yet another opportunity to live for Him. That is why, although I will never be able to offer Christ the perfect love He offers me, I keep trying to live His will for my life. I am His and He has proven time after time that He will never let me go. Despite the fact that I deliberately and foolishly walk away from Him into danger, He keeps me close so that I will not come to ruin. I live because His mercy allows me to live.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6