“His Mercies Begin Afresh” (09/10/2025)

There are several things I must admit to relying upon: air, food, a home, love of others for starters. But if I am honest, I would also need to admit to others that I rely upon the LORD’s mercies quite frequently. I’m still under construction even though I am 75, and I find that frequently I’m not quite who I am created to be or called to be in the moment. One of my favorite verses in the little-known book of Lamentations is: “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (3:22-23).

Daily, as I rise, it is a new beginning. I know that wherever I go, the LORD is with me. I know His love never ends. And I know that while I desire to live the life He created me to live and to become the one He created me to be, I fall short because I choose my way rather than Christ’s way or I put more emphasis on being loved than in loving. That’s where my penchant for pondering arose, it is my recognition that I need to examine every day and seek the LORD’s mercy, the LORD’s grace, the LORD’s help to do better.

Daily I do seek the LORD’s mercies and the grace to begin again. He can make all things new again. And while I still have the joints of a 75-year-old this morning as I write, I also have the heart of a child of God and the hope of life in abundance with the LORD.

Life requires reflection, I’ve learned. Even Socrates knew that when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  We need to spend time prayerfully in introspection, self-reflection, even questioning. And when we find we’ve failed, when we find we’ve sinned by choosing our wants in the moment over love for the LORD or another, we need to own up and ask for mercy. Navigating life is difficult enough without carrying baggage.

As we journey through this life to life in the LORD in abundance, let us take the opportunity to speak to the LORD early and often. Let us trust in the LORD’s love and mercy and allow the LORD to free us from those things that weigh us down from the past. And let us begin each day assured that “His mercies begin afresh each morning.”

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.