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Mercy 1

             Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. (Psalm 6:2)

            “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13)

             It’s been a challenging day so far. I got up with such plans, but the rain moved in and the temperatures dropped. I knew they would, but I hoped to fill the blueberry bed. While waiting, I did a little research about the peat moss part of it, and I put it in a big container out in the rain to soak up water, and I added water because it wasn’t raining hard enough. So I have the blessing of doing the peat moss part right, but it’s… not…done.

There are other things. My writing isn’t going as I’d like. I feel like a failure in several areas of life, especially regarding my relationships with God, myself, and everyone else. It doesn’t matter whether those feelings are associated with reality. Except, it does, because the point is that I’m not trusting God with them.  How can I take them to God?

            I think along the lines of the verses above. “Have mercy on me, Lord. Have mercy on me, a sinner or failure.” We all need His mercy. This should be the prayer we each cry now and again. But when we pray it, do we wait with expectation? How will God answer? Sometimes, He fixes situations. Sometimes, He fixes the person. Do we notice, or is it like when we’ve been in pain for a long time and one day realize that the pain is gone – and has been – but we don’t remember it going away? Even worse, do we just get used to the pain or problem about which we’ve cried for mercy?

            I’ve worked on this post all day, and it’s now after dinner. I’ve just taken advantage of some mercy that God has given me. I managed to get two wheelbarrows of peat/soil/compost mix out to my blueberry bed. It’s nowhere near filled, it gives me hope that it will soon be filled. And that leads me to what will probably be the topic of tomorrow’s post – the meaning of mercy.

 

 

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