We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy…. (Dan 9:18).
God is immensely gracious. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. His mercies are new every morning and He does not turn His face away from us when we have done wrong. That’s because He is an ever-pursuing, unconditional loving Heavenly Father. That is good news for people like me who don’t always get it right.
Sometimes the enemy wants to convince me that God could never redeem my situation, but that’s just not true. Then, there are other moments when the enemy wants to convince me that God isn’t fair, but mean and unjust. I have learned, in the season, that the reason I don’t always press into truth, is because I have a problem with my own personal ego . I’m recognizing that I have become a master at making situations all about me. It’s that hidden pride that is the worst, for truly, it infects us in ways that we cannot see, but that everyone else sees and experiences around us.
Therefore, today I’m taking very seriously the person that I am apart from Christ. The one that still needs His light to shine the darkness that I sometimes cling to and have clung to. I’m asking Him to go into the hard places of my heart to reveal His truth, so that I might be met with mercy as I walk in repentance.
You see, God can do very little with a prideful heart, but He can take the humble and use them for great Kingdom work if they are willing to head His voice and rise to the challenge of walking an even greater path of humbling. You see, for a long time I thought that if I was humble God would call me UP to do great things and my stage would increase, but what I’m learning through this journey is that when God calls us up, He gives us a shovel to start digging, not to build a bigger stage, but to create a place for people to join with us as we allow God to uproot all the junk of our past and the present sins surrounding us. It’s that inner transformation that we need and that’s only found as we trust in His mercy to make us new.
So friends, I pray that today would be the day that you press into His mercy for your life. Remember, it’s not about you. It never has been. That’s a truth I have to remind myself of daily. When we do recognize this, we can start making others a greater priority then ourselves and when we experience this in it’s fullness, we become the aroma of Christ to those around us because they experience Him within us.
Father, I want to live differently. Help me to give up myself, so that I might take up more of Christ and His character. May my thoughts be pleasing to you. May my actions bring your glory, in Jesus name, Amen.
Heather Quiroz 