Skip to main content

Remember Mercy

         Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)

 

God and I are in very different time-streams. Actually, He’s not in a time-stream, and I am. That’s the problem. When I cry out to God to help or say something, as Habakkuk did in today’s verse, I’m looking for an answer in the next thirty seconds, and it would help if there was something dramatic or attention-grabbing about it, so I notice.

On the other hand, in His wisdom, God provided lots of answers two thousand years ago, and may provide an answer six months or two years down the line, when I’ve forgotten the question, but actually need the answer. And, if the truth is known, He’s probably given me the same answer two thousand years ago, and two thousand times since I was born, but I haven’t seen, heard, or understood.

One of the things I’m struggling with at the moment can be described a couple of ways. One way is to say that I’m struggling with spiritual adulting. When babies are unhappy and cry, someone does something to fix the situation. As we become adults, we’re supposed to learn to take responsibility for fixing our own problems. But when I have a problem that I take to God, I want Him to comfort me, burp me, change my diaper, and give me a bottle – or maybe just entertain me. And I want it right now, in real-time. Like Habakkuk, I want God to make His fame and His deeds known in my time, and in wrath remember mercy (because I don’t want anyone to be harmed, I just want the special effects.)

What I don’t want is to spend four hours looking through Bible verses I’ve already read God knows how many times – or at least my eyes have transmitted the images, or my ears have transmitted the sounds to my brain – whether or not my brain actually did anything with them. What I don’t want is to take responsibility (unless I want to,) or blame, but I do want credit. God is too wise, and too smart for that.

At the same time, how could anyone not want to see God being God? The key, I suspect, is our motivation. If we echo Habakkuk for our own entertainment, there’s no reason for God to oblige.  In fact, it might be an occasion for Him to remember mercy If we echo Habakkuk for God’s glory, that’s another matter. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more