I was up again lastnight! Tossing & turning, analyzing my to-do list and balancing my checkbook in my head. Worrying about bills that needed to be paid and Christmas gifts that precious children had on their wishlist. While I am sure I am not alone in this nightly ritual, few of us will admit that our worries visit us at night and rob us of our sleep. Although, I am very familiar with that old adage, "It's always darkest before the dawn", I find no comfort in it. It is dark outside and my mind is consumed with worry.
I finally get out of bed so not to wake the Dr. and I wander into the livingroom, turn on the TV, hoping to find something that will distract me from these lingering, worrisome thoughts. Of course, out of 500 some channels, I find nothing worth watching, and nothing to lighten the load residing in my mind. Atlast, I settle on a program that I am hopeful will 'settle' my mind. My stomach starts growling and so I decide to eat a little something. I go into the kitchen and get some tortilla chips, come back to my 'therapist', and start munching out. The crunch is so loud in my ears that I have to turn up the volume on the TV and so I sit, eat, and watch until I am satisfied and sleepy.
I return to bed, a little less worried, or atleast tired enough to drift off into oblivion. Next thing I know, I hear birds singing and I see sun shimmering through my blinds and it is morning. The first thought that comes to my mind is the scripture from the bible that reads, "His mercies are new every morning." I'm paraphrasing here because the actual scripture comes from Lamentations 3:22 & 23 and it reads, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness." But what came to my mind was "His mercies are new every morning", and the song "Great is Thy Faithfulness" was playing in my head. The worry had subsided with the night and the sun was coming up and everything was okay.
I know this doesn't seem like anything worth writing about but you have to realize, I have not been to church in about two years and I rarely, if ever, listen to worship music. So to wake up with a scripture in my head and worship playing background music caused me to take notice. I had studied the bible, at length, for years and so of course I got up and immediately went to my Vine's Expository Dictionary and looked up the word 'mercy'. I knew what it meant, but I wanted to get the root meaning. It basically means compassion. So God's compassion is new every morning, right?
That was not going to be enough for me! I don't know why but I always feel the need to dig deeper, like an old miner, mining for gold, I sift through the muck & mire for hours, for that one speck of shimmering rock. Why do the worries of the world comsume our minds at night but in the morning seem so trivial? Well, the scripture right before verse 22 says, "This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope." In the night, when all seems overwhelmingly impossible, I have to recall, bring back, into my mind all of God's goodness and yes, mercy. Mercy is God's unmerited favor. It is not conditioned by what you do or who you are. You cannot earn it. It is a gift. Therefore, you cannot take claim of it. You cannot buy it no matter how rich you are. You cannot store it up like a hoarder, and there is no reason to, because you are given a fresh batch of 'mercy' every morning.
So, where do we go from here? Will I wake up with worries another night? Probably, but the good news is, I will re-member God's words and I will have hope. No TV show or tortilla chip can give me solace, but his words are like manna from heaven, they feed my soul. Great is Thy faithfulness. I leave you with the words from this song "Great is Thy Faithfulness".
I finally get out of bed so not to wake the Dr. and I wander into the livingroom, turn on the TV, hoping to find something that will distract me from these lingering, worrisome thoughts. Of course, out of 500 some channels, I find nothing worth watching, and nothing to lighten the load residing in my mind. Atlast, I settle on a program that I am hopeful will 'settle' my mind. My stomach starts growling and so I decide to eat a little something. I go into the kitchen and get some tortilla chips, come back to my 'therapist', and start munching out. The crunch is so loud in my ears that I have to turn up the volume on the TV and so I sit, eat, and watch until I am satisfied and sleepy.
I return to bed, a little less worried, or atleast tired enough to drift off into oblivion. Next thing I know, I hear birds singing and I see sun shimmering through my blinds and it is morning. The first thought that comes to my mind is the scripture from the bible that reads, "His mercies are new every morning." I'm paraphrasing here because the actual scripture comes from Lamentations 3:22 & 23 and it reads, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness." But what came to my mind was "His mercies are new every morning", and the song "Great is Thy Faithfulness" was playing in my head. The worry had subsided with the night and the sun was coming up and everything was okay.
I know this doesn't seem like anything worth writing about but you have to realize, I have not been to church in about two years and I rarely, if ever, listen to worship music. So to wake up with a scripture in my head and worship playing background music caused me to take notice. I had studied the bible, at length, for years and so of course I got up and immediately went to my Vine's Expository Dictionary and looked up the word 'mercy'. I knew what it meant, but I wanted to get the root meaning. It basically means compassion. So God's compassion is new every morning, right?
That was not going to be enough for me! I don't know why but I always feel the need to dig deeper, like an old miner, mining for gold, I sift through the muck & mire for hours, for that one speck of shimmering rock. Why do the worries of the world comsume our minds at night but in the morning seem so trivial? Well, the scripture right before verse 22 says, "This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope." In the night, when all seems overwhelmingly impossible, I have to recall, bring back, into my mind all of God's goodness and yes, mercy. Mercy is God's unmerited favor. It is not conditioned by what you do or who you are. You cannot earn it. It is a gift. Therefore, you cannot take claim of it. You cannot buy it no matter how rich you are. You cannot store it up like a hoarder, and there is no reason to, because you are given a fresh batch of 'mercy' every morning.
So, where do we go from here? Will I wake up with worries another night? Probably, but the good news is, I will re-member God's words and I will have hope. No TV show or tortilla chip can give me solace, but his words are like manna from heaven, they feed my soul. Great is Thy faithfulness. I leave you with the words from this song "Great is Thy Faithfulness".
Great is thy faithfulness,
Great is thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see,
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided,
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
No comments:
Post a Comment